Salon.com > Michael Tracey

NY press corps yuks it up with Bloomberg

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:00:00 +0000

[UPDATED BELOW]

On Tuesday, one lucky group of New York City journalists were treated to an evening of drinks, pizza squares, and funny gift exchanges at Mayor Michael Bloomberg's annual Holiday Party for local press.

In attendance this year were reporters from the New York Times, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, CBS, Fox, and other outlets. The journalists, no doubt straining to retain their “objectivity” throughout, were able to schmooze with dignitaries such as Bloomberg’s longtime partner Diana Taylor (who sits on the Board of Directors for Brookfield Properties, the retail firm that partially owns Zuccotti Park) and Paul Browne, spokesperson for the New York City Police Department.

Bloomberg made sure to crack a few jokes at the expense of Occupy Wall Street, whose encampment he ordered forcibly cleared on November 15, by way of a surprise paramilitary style raid. Reporters attempting to cover the police action were harassed, assaulted, and barred from viewing the area -- for their own protection, Bloomberg later claimed. (Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who represents the Financial District, has since called on Attorney General Eric Holder to launch an investigation.) All told, police arrested at least ten journalists.

Tea Party welcomes Newt to New York

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:14:00 +0000

The Staten Island, N.Y., hotel where Republican presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich appeared on Saturday afternoon for a “Tea Party Town Hall” could hardly have been more nondescript. Nestled deep inside a corporate park somewhere in New York City's most bucolic (and conservative) borough, the Hilton Garden Inn looked identical to scores of other hopelessly bland places across America — which didn't stop Gingrich from beginning his speech with praise for the hotel’s artwork. “Very, very impressive,” he told the 600-person crowd, to applause.

The staples of Gingrich’s repertoire -- aggressive rhetoric, intense self-regard, historical pomposity, and organizational chaos -- were on full display. “In his world, the government is sovereign, and we are merely subjects,” Gingrich said of President Obama. “In our world, we are citizens, and the government is our servant.” He even tried his hand at a bit of theology. “All of us are flawed,” Gingrich noted when a journalist asked about his well-documented personal foibles. “The belief that only one person was perfect, and that was Christ” encapsulates “the heart of Christianity,” he affirmed.

The NYPD has discredited itself

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:30:00 +0000

In early stages of Occupy Wall Street, I sometimes encountered people who harbored a legitimate concern: Wouldn't prolonged media attention to altercations between police and demonstrators distract from the movement’s message?

This apprehension always struck me as misguided. What could be more central to Occupy's guiding philosophy than the idea that the rule of law has been subverted by corporate interests? In collusion with government functionaries and beyond meaningful accountability from the public, these interests have created a separate realm of law for themselves -- one that orients the financial and political systems in their favor, to the detriment of everyone else. If this is indeed true, and the law itself is marred by a systemic corruption, then law enforcement -- manifested physically in the form of police officers -- is an appropriate focus for a social movement seeking redress of grievances.