A man on the left bells the cat --- and that pussy with the bell around its neck is NYC Mayor Eric Adams

What's it all about ???

Tuesday, the Mayor of New York City said this at City Hall  ---  "I’m a Black man that’s the mayor, but my story is being interpreted by people who don't look like me....  How many Blacks are on editorial boards?  How many Blacks determine how these stories are being written?"

Is the mayor's quick resort to to racial identity politics a sign of his thin skin  ---  or an augury that Mayor Eric Adams might be more of a divider than a uniter ?????

According to Bay Ridge's own Ross Barkan  ---   "It’s a self-serving political strategy, canny and divisive, with only one true goal in mind: intimidate left-leaning reporters....  Make them give ground out of guilt..."

Mayor Eric Adams is making a cynical bid for the largely white New York City press corps to give him more favorable  ---  posssibly  even propagandistic ---  coverage.  However, there is very deep irony here, because the new mayor has pretty much been winning friendly media coverage since entering office. He had enjoyed the almost unstinting loyalty of the New York Post, which celebrated Adams' crusade against the no-cash bail laws and his apparent alliances with many of New York City's business elite  ---  and local television news, which now seems dedicated to crime stories fed to an aging audience, while at the same time being increasingly alienated from the younger generation's progressive movement, is a pro-Adams domain.  

 
Yesterday. Ross Barkan wrote this about something that happened a couple of days ago:   "...  On Tuesday, Eric Adams, the new mayor of New York City, delivered a searing indictment of the journalists covering him. 'I’m a Black man that’s the mayor, but my story is being interpreted by people who don't look like me,' Adams said at City Hall. 'How many Blacks are on editorial boards? How many Blacks determine how these stories are being written?'...    Adams [was] speaking to a gathering of reporters who had received a personal invite to be there...  [and he] threatened to stop taking questions from reporters unrelated to the specific announcements he was making. That afternoon, he was touting an increase in job opportunities for the summer youth employment program....  The [mayor's] rancor was prompted by the media coverage of Adams’ first trip to Albany as mayor. There, he tried and failed to convince Democrats in the State Assembly and Senate to reverse the partial elimination of cash bail, a reform made in 2019, and scrap a law that forbids defendants under 18 from being tried as adults. Since Adams has staked much of his mayoralty on lowering the crime rate, he is committed to the view that weakening criminal justice reforms is the way to get there....   'I went to the Assembly conference. People raised the issues that they had and we talked. Black mayor, Black Speaker, Black majority leader, coming together and talking to each other,' Adams complained on Tuesday. 'And if you would have turned on the news this morning, you would have said, "It was all hell up there." ’..."   (See" Eric Adams Wields His Weapon of Identity -- It didn't take long" by Ross Barkan, 2/16/2022,  Political Currents by Ross Barkan [https://rossbarkan.substack.com/p/eric-adams-wields-his-weapon-of-identity?r=56w8p&fbclid=IwAR1dMmzyamjZMW_KJRKZZJ31d9r8eD5hld5HI4rEX1g-ZcTpLVcVXYwjfyE]).

According to Barkan what Mayor Adams did was a very base appeal to racial identity politics;  and it was intended to bully the press and other media into giving him lock-step favorable coverage.

To be sure, the article was written from Barkan's decidedly leftish journalistic and solidly progressive socio-economic perspective,  however it does bespeak unease even in leftish circles with the use of racial identity as a tool for certain purposes, and by by certain people in power  ---  in this case Eric Adams.....

Nonetheless, even though this ultimate admonition by Mr. Barkan appears to be addressed to the solidly left and left-leaning members of the press and media   ---  everybody should take it to heart:  
"....  What to do then?  Journalists covering Adams shouldn’t back down. They should not allow him to shape their coverage or bully them into sanding the edges off of what they do. Journalists should not be expected to reproduce press releases coming out of City Hall. Holding power to account is what an effective press corps does. Above all else, journalists should not regard Adams’ commentary with anything approaching good faith. It’s a self-serving political strategy, canny and divisive, with only one true goal in mind: intimidate left-leaning reporters, of which there are many, into treating him even more kindly. Make them give ground out of guilt. Will it work? Only if the reporter class lets it...."