De Blasio Won't Answer Questions About Scathing Editorial On His Press Policy
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio has stuck to his guns, continuing to decline to take reporters' questions even in the face of scathing criticism.
As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, Albert Einstein is reputed once to have said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Kramer said she pleads guilty to doing just that.
She tried to ask the mayor a question at his public news conference on Thursday. But since it was not his day to recognize the media, she got nowhere.
De Blasio went to a Brooklyn school on Thursday to trumpet his pre-kindergarten program.
It included an awkward high-five with a 4-year-old who was accepted into a program for the fall, and another awkward moment – what has become de Blasio's pro-forma way of declining to answer press questions.
"Mr. Mayor, there's a Times editorial critical of your media policy. Would you like to make a comment on that?" Kramer asked the mayor.
But de Blasio left before she finished answering the question.
Kramer's question was about an editorial published Thursday in the New York Times that slammed de Blasio for his decision to further limit questions from the City Hall press corps.
The newspaper was highly critical of de Blasio's temperament. The event that set the new limits in motion was a March 23 meltdown where de Blasio wanted to talk about only his selected topic du jour – a Mansion Tax proposal that the mayor was pitching in Albany.
"I'm here to talk about this. If you want to ask question about this, I'm here to talk about this. If you want to talk about this, great. If not, we'll take questions another way, another time," de Blasio said at the event. "Does anyone want to ask about the mansion tax? Same thing. Guys, you can ask all you want. Here's what we are here to talk about."
The Times compared de Blasio unfavorably to two of his predecessors – Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg – noting that mayoral reputations seem to be made based on how the handle the City Hall press corps.
"Mayors of New York tend to be remembered for the way they wrangle with City Hall reporters, a signature battle stance that says a lot about the personality of His Honor and his relationship with the press," the Times editorial said. "For Rudy Giuliani, it was the righteous snarl. For Michael Bloomberg, the smirky insult. For Mayor Bill de Blasio, it's looking like: the petulant whine."
Kramer again tried to get de Blasio to respond to the editorial, but he would not.
The newspaper said it was a "bad, bad thing" to shut down reporters from doing their jobs. As for Kramer, she said she would ignore the advice attributed to Einstein and just keep asking questions.
On the "Ask the Mayor" segment on WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show" Friday, Lehrer said de Blasio would take questions on a limited number of topics.