NYC Mayor Eric Adams says media covering him through different 'prism' because he's Black
Adams says his story is being interpreted by 'people who don't look like me'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New York City Mayor Eric Adams lashed out at the news media after his trip to meet with lawmakers in Albany and suggested that coverage of him is distorted because he’s a Black man.
"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 during a press conference on Tuesday. "We got to be honest about that. How many Blacks are in the editorial boards? How many Blacks determine how these stories are being written? How many Asians? How many east Indians? How many south Asians? Everyone talks about my government being diversified. What’s the diversification in the newsrooms?"
New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks to the press after two NYPD officers were shot while responding to a domestic violence call in Harlem on Jan. 21, 2022. (Reuters/Dieu-Nalio Chery)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Adams continued, "My role as mayor is being interpreted through the prisms of your realities and not mine. So when you write stories, you’re not writing stories for people who were almost homeless like me. You’re not writing stories for people who were arrested and beat up by police officers. You’re not writing stories for those who are dealing with high crime. You’re writing them from your prisms."
Adams said he was not "saying this to attack" but his administration is going to be "about saying the obvious that other people are uncomfortable with saying."
"Discomfort is growth," Adams explained.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Adams then called on the owners of media companies to diversify their newsrooms.
"Diversify your newsrooms so I can look out and see people that look like me and say we are going to write stories based on the prisms that we have," Adams said. "That's not what we're getting and that's why I'm covered the way I'm covered. And I'm not comfortable with it."
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul leave the funeral for fallen NYPD officer Wilbert Mora at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Feb. 2, 2022, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Adams was expressing frustration with media reports that his trip to Albany to meet with New York lawmakers about rolling back the state’s bail reform laws did not go smoothly, including one anonymous source who said Adams got "beat up" by lawmakers in the meetings.
"There was no arguing, no yelling, no screaming," Adams said. "Areas we disagreed on we talked about it and we walked through them."
Adams continued, "I’m trying to figure out do you guys already write the stories before I do something and just live out what you have already written? I’m going to stop doing off topics because if you already have your perception of me and you’re already going to stick to what you think I am then why am I doing this?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mayor Eric Adams in a livestream frame grab from video provided by NYPD News. (NYPD News via AP)
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Adams added that he has been doing a "darn good job" whether the media wants to "acknowledge it or not."