Freedom of press? Don't ask!
Blas cops boot Postie for doing job
Mayor de Blasio is a such a big believer in the free press that he let two bodyguards physically remove a credentialed Post reporter who had the temerity to ask him a question in public on Sunday.
The unusual muzzling unfolded at the start of the annual Dominican Day Parade in Midtown, where the reporter sought de Blasio’s reaction to The Post’s front-page story about his administration’s many meetings with lobbyists.
It also came after Hizzoner proclaimed on national TV Sunday: “I believe in a free, strong media with diverse views. I’ll defend it with all I’ve got.”
Just two hours later, after de Blasio cut a ribbon to kick off the parade and was posing for photos near West 37th Street and Sixth Avenue, the reporter asked him to comment on The Post’s Page 1 story, headlined “City for Sale.”
Instead of answering or even declining to answer, the mayor watched as two members of his NYPD security detail approached the reporter, with one grabbing his shoulder and leading him away from the mayor.
“Kevin, you have to leave. You can’t be here,” the plainclothes cop told the reporter, who was wearing a police-issued press pass around his neck.
Both bodyguards then escorted the reporter about a halfblock away, where a member of the NYPD’s public-information office, Officer Brian Magoolaghan, told him, “Come on, Kevin. No stunts today.”
City Hall had previously declined to discuss records that showed officials held 136 meetings with lobbyists over just three months this year.
The reporter’s removal was reminiscent of the White House’s barring of CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins from a Rose Garden event last month after she asked President Trump “inappropriate” ques- tions in the Oval Office that day.
Collins had asked about audio recordings of Trump made by his then-lawyer Michael Cohen and Trump’s invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the White House.
Earlier Sunday, de Blasio appeared on CNN to discuss an interview he gave last week to Britain’s Guardian newspaper in which he criticized The Post’s parent company, News Corp, and its founder and executive chairman, Rupert Murdoch.
On CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” de Blasio was pressed about his criticism of The Post, which he has branded a “right-wing rag.”
“Why do you feel it’s your role to be calling out a newspaper because you don’t like the content?” asked the show’s host, Brian Stelter.
“Because I think it’s not happening enough . . . It’s not happening the way I think it should,” de Blasio said.
De Blasio’s press secretary referred questions about the parade incident to the NYPD, which responded with an email.
“The department takes appropriate and necessary measures to protect dignitaries, including the mayor of the city of New York,” the e-mail said.