PERMANENT GOVERNMENT IN NEW YORK CITY

When the New York City Charter was revised in 1989, public officials were warned about trying to parlay their official positions into personal gain. And the powerful, if largely anonymous, body that keeps those officials in line, using the threat of hefty fines and even job termination, is the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.

However, there has been an abrogation of term limits by Mayor Michael Bloomberg with the strong assistance of his willing political partner Speaker Christine Quinn, and 29 Council Members. They were able to tell New York City voters to “screw themselves,” even though they have voted twice for term limits for city elected officials.

The reporting of this travesty of justice has been lackluster. Therefore, term Limits should not be just for politicians; but should be applicable to the reporters assigned to cover both wings of City Hall. They should be term limited too.

My observation for over two decades of covering the politics emanating from City Hall is that the reporters assigned to Room 9, have become too cozy with the executives to inform their readers and listeners objectively.

There are reporters in Room 9 that have spent their entire professional career there. There are rare moments during mayoral news conferences, that they ask hard questions. Most of the time, the Mayor’s Press Office plants questions to some of the Mayor’s favorite reporters and they obediently follow with the tainted questions. Anyone who follows the Mayor’s press conferences can identify them by observing how many times Mayor Bloomberg acknowledges them from the podium. Some of them, told me that they would like to ask questions to mine (objective and independent), but if they do, they will be blackballed by the Mayor.

I don’t blame them, they have to please the Mayor and their editors as well. Since 2006, I have been partially exiled, after I was banished from The Blue Room in 2006. Recently, my attorney (Norman Siegel) reached an agreement with the Mayor’s Press Office, allowing me to attend the Mayor’s news conferences, however, Mayor Bloomberg continues to ignore me and my questions.

The only Mayor that reporters from Room 9 began criticizing was Mayor David Dinkins. I recall covering a news conference at the Manhattan Borough President's Office, and after Mr. Dinkins finished his news conference, the reporters began questioning whether the Mayor-elect had the intellectual capability to run City Hall. Shortly after the inauguration, Room 9 reporters asked the new Mayor about how many showers he took a day, about a carving bed head board, and even a “peccadillo” with an unnamed Chinese woman. Perhaps, they were ruthless because he was an African-American and the reporters were white?

The Mayor has gained the support of 24 community newspapers. The denizens of Room 9 have failed to question the Mayor and his campaign operators, on how the Mayor has secured the support of community and ethnic newspapers The following is a partial list of those papers:

Haitian Times, Queens Tribune, Queens Ledger/Brooklyn Star, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Queens Chronicle, The National Herald, Ming Pao Daily News, Pakistan News, Illyria, The Weekly Bangladesh, Novoye Russkoye Slovo, EcuaTimes, Yevreiski Mir, Ecuador News, The New York Page, Irish Voice, Jewish Press, NY Al Día, La Semana Metro, Impacto Latin News, Queens Courier, New York Community Times, China Press, El Especial & El Especialito.

As the publisher of the NYC Free Press I am well aware of the financial difficulties small community newspapers deal with. Several times, politicians have offered to advertise in The NYC Free Press if the paper would support them and print laudatory articles about them. I have always been proud to reject them. Did the mayor $20 billion fortune and giant campaign advertising budget have gotten to these newspapers?

Of course the small community newspapers are not alone in this scheme by Mayor Bloomberg's campaign team. We only have to peruse the mainstream media and read their laudatory stories about Bloombito - Little Bloomberg. It is not only the print media, but the electronic media as well.

Like politicians, reporters assigned to City Hall’s Room 9 shoud be term limited too. Their claim to be objective, is as realistic as a $3 dollar bill.