In Emails, De Blasio Reveals He Doesn't Much Care for the Press

Under court order, City Hall released a trove of emails between Mayor Bill de Blasio and one of the his top outside advisers, some of which showed harsh criticism of the press and its coverage of his mayoralty.

In one of them, for example, de Blasio called the news media "pitiful" after stories appeared reporting that he had gone to the gym after a FDNY firefighter was shot in 2015.

The 4,245 pages of messages were released as a result of a lawsuit filed by Spectrum News NY1 and the New York Post which sought correspondence between the mayor and Jonathan Rosen, the co-founder of the public relations firm BerlinRosen.

“First of all, the news media is pitiful and it’s sad for our city and nation” — @NYCMayor railing against coverage of how he stayed at the gym during an NYPD standoff with a guy who shot a firefighter in 2015 pic.twitter.com/VQJ9Sg9U2r

— Yoav Gonen (@yoavgonen) May 24, 2018

"They've shown him in particular getting very upset over press coverage...sounding almost like Donald Trump at various points," said Spectrum News NY1 political reporter Grace Rauh, one of the original plaintiffs.

The de Blasio administration at first refused, arguing that Rosen was an "agent of the city," and deserved the same protections as did employees. (Correspondence within a government agency is protected, but communication between departments or with an outside individual or entity must be disclosed under the state's Freedom of Information Laws — though there are exceptions.) A lower court judge disagreed and so did an board of appeals judges earlier this month who unanimously voted against the city, paving the way for the release of the documents.

BerlinRosen advised de Blasio during his 2013 run for mayor and on his re-election campaign and also helped run de Blasio's now-defunct nonprofit Campaign For One new York.

The mayor's office said they'll be releasing emails of the other remaining agents of the city following a redaction process.

Read the full correspondence below:

Emails between Mayor Bill de Blasio and BerlinRosen by Jermain Gibson on Scribd