RUTHFULLY YOURS

Not two hours after New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio gave a ringing defense of freedom of the press, his goons hauled away a reporter for the New York Post who had dared ask him a question in public.

On a national TV show Sunday morning, DeBlasio said  “I believe in a free, strong media with diverse views — I’ll defend it with all I’ve got.”

Apparently, he doesn’t have much to defend it with.

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 “CITY FOR SALE” Page One story.

Instead of answering or even declining to answer the question, the mayor watched as two members of his NYPD security detail approached the reporter — who was wearing a police-issued press pass around his neck — 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 said.

Both bodyguards then escorted the reporter about a half-block 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 during just three months earlier this year.

The incident was reminiscent of one last month when the White House barred a CNN reporter from a Rose Garden event for shouting “inappropriate” questions at President Trump in the Oval Office earlier in the day.

Trump attacks what he calls “fake news” and the reporters who report it. One can argue exactly what the president means when he calls some negative stories about him “fake news” but he at least acknowledges the existence of a free press.

Of course, the media doesn’t see it that way, viewing any criticism of them at all from Trump as “an attack” on freedom. But DeBlasio’s failure to take action when a credentialed reporter is forcibly removed for asking a question reveals a glaring hypocrisy that shouldn’t go unchallenged.

Politicians look to control the message they want to deliver. They want to control the narrative, spinning what they say and what they do to put them in the best possible light. Reporters are supposed to reject those efforts and ask the questions that should be asked.

Neither Trump nor DeBlasio have any business infringing on the rights of a free press – even if they are horribly and obviously biased. For their part, the hypersenitivity of the press to criticism is wearing on the American people and most believe the media go too far when it comes to shaping the news.

DeBlasio’s pledge to “defend” a “free strong media” was virtue signalling. When the time came to put those words into action, he failed. At least Trump makes no bones about looking to delegitimize the press. DeBlasio, for all his posturing, is hardly any better.