New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D.) told Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs that he doesn't want to give News Corp, the parent company of Fox News and the New York Post, a "free pass" for the "suffering" it has caused.
The mayor was criticizing President Donald Trump's frequent attacks on the media when he made the comments at the Netroots Nation conference.
"If you see a steady decline in democracy, we’re going to have to vividly defend a lot of media we don’t agree with. But I don’t want to give them a free pass on what they have done to all of us," de Blasio said.
The president has frequently attacked the press for publishing "fake news" about him and his administration. When he was traveling to Helsinki to meet Russian President Vladamir Putin, he called the press the "enemy of the people." That comment triggered backlash from reporters and further spurred open hostility between the White House and the press.
While de Blasio criticized the president for his attacks on the press, he had his own criticism for a segment of the press, News Corp.
"If you could remove News Corp from the last 25 years of American history, we would be in an entirely different place," De Blasio said. ""We would be a more unified country. We would not be suffering a lot of the negativity and divisiveness we’re going through right now. I can’t ignore that."
De Blasio argued that his criticism of the press differs from Trump's because the president doesn't believe in free speech.
"There is no comparison between a progressive critique of the media – and overwhelmingly corporate media, by the way – and a president who does not believe in free speech and is trying to undermine the norms of democracy," he said.
De Blasio has a long history of disliking segments of the media. Back in May, he told a New York radio station that he wouldn't shed a tear if the right-leaning New York Post went out of business. That is in contrast to his reponse when another New York newspaper, the left-leaning New York Daily News, announced massive layoffs.
"It’s no secret that I’ve disagreed with the Daily News from time to time. But Tronc’s greedy decision to gut the newsroom is bad for government and a disaster for NYC. Tronc should sell the paper to someone committed to local journalism and keeping reporters on the beat," de Blasio tweeted.
It’s no secret that I’ve disagreed with the Daily News from time to time. But Tronc’s greedy decision to gut the newsroom is bad for government and a disaster for NYC. Tronc should sell the paper to someone committed to local journalism and keeping reporters on the beat.
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) July 23, 2018
The mayor also talked about the Democratic party's shift to the left with the election upset in New York's 14th Congressional District by Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He welcomed the party moving to the left and said it was a good thing that people can openly identify as socialist.
"The fact that the word is now been liberated as part of the discussion is very, very healthy," de Blasio said.