youngmanhattanite:

Life’s a Riot with TARP vs Tarp

Some years ago, the Mayor of New York started the tradition of hosting an annual holiday party at Gracie Mansion for the media, mostly City Hall beat reporters (Room 9‘ers), that has the unspoken code of being kinda-sorta off the record. One could argue, though I wouldn’t, that there’s no real harm or impropriety in these things. (See: White House Correspondents Dinner.) But this year is different with Bloomberg. Very different.

After the NYPD’s recent treatment (obviously sanctioned by the Mayor’s Office) of the media covering Occupy Wall Street raids and protests, which included the “NYPD aggressively blocking journalists from doing their constitutionally protected work and in some instances is even targeting journalists for mistreatment,”  it is highly inappropriate to yuk it up at a holiday party and give gag gifts at OWS’s expense.

Todd Maisel, the NY Daily News photog who took the photos above, tweeted “Mayor has great sense of humor” which is supposed to make things OK? I guess if I was a billionaire with a private army, I’d be laughing too. As I said before, when you’re talking about rising poverty and eroding First Amendment rights, the joke’s not all that funny.

I’m shocked this story and these photos haven’t gained more traction. Why aren’t local media outlets talking about this? Problem is, the ones who should - the ones who normally Tweet every breath out of Bloomberg’s mouth and are usually the finest examples of journalism - are the ones who were in that room and they’re not saying much.

Access and influence, same old bullshit. You get to eat it.