New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D.) said Friday that he "will not shed a tear" if the New York Post goes out of business.
"I believe the Post is not only right wing, not only distorts the facts on a regular basis, but is divisive," de Blasio said on "The Brian Lehrer Show."
"No, I will not shed a tear if that newspaper is no longer here, because I think we need a better civic discourse," the mayor added. "Their presence in our society, unfortunately, is harmful."
De Blasio's comments came after his administration on Thursday released thousands of internal emails, which in part show the mayor castigating the media's coverage of City Hall. NY1 and the New York Post sued for the release of the emails and eventually won, forcing the administration to comply.
In his interview on Friday, de Blasio criticized the "corporate media" because it is based on a free-enterprise system.
"I think there's a problem with mainstream media and I'll get to the specific, but I think the broad point is there is a problem with mainstream media. And I have felt this my whole life; this is not new to my role as mayor," de Blasio said. "We have corporate media, and it is based on a free-enterprise model. It's based on selling things. I don't think that's healthy; I think that leads to a lot of distortion."
The mayor added that he loves government-funded media like public radio.
"I am a big fan of public radio [and] public TV. I am a big fan of the alternative media and subscription-based media with the Guardian that are trying to take some of the bias out of the equation," de Blasio said.
In one of the released emails, de Blasio complains about the negative coverage of him being at a gym late one morning in 2015 when a firefighter was shot rather than traveling to the crime scene.
"First of all, the news media is pitiful and it's sad for our city and nation," de Blasio wrote.
"I don't think the coverage has reflected the work we're doing for the impact it's having on the people of this city and about you and I talked about it on air," de Blasio reiterated to Lehrer.
Lehrer asked de Blasio about a recent New York Daily News article that compares the mayor's criticism of the media to President Donald Trump's attacks on the press.
"Ridiculous simplification," de Blasio responded. "I think in kind of case in point, Donald Trump and I are about the most polar opposite people in the world."
De Blasio said that the difference between Trump and himself is that Trump is undermining the free press while he is only criticizing the tabloid and corporate media.
"He's trying to undermine the free press. He is trying to undermine our law-enforcement institutions. He is trying undermine democracy," de Blasio said. "I have a critique of the corporate media, and I have a critique of the tabloid culture."