Today's New York Times has a story about how the mafia has corrupted the city's Department of Buildings. Members of the Luchese crime family got jobs as building inspectors and, as the indictments indicate, there was a vast array of bribes, overlooked violations, false safety reports, siphoning of public funds, just vile stuff. This has been going on for years!
Remember those crane collapses which resulted in several deaths? That was due to false safety reports and bumbling by the DOB. Apparently the Bloomberg Department of Buildings is a cesspool of corruption.
However, what's most amazing about this is that Mayor Bloomberg has not been questioned or grilled by the press about any of this. The press has been totally docile and quiet. For some reason, Teflon Mike has avoided scrutiny or any fallout from this scandal. It's only coming out now because the Manhattan DA handed down indictments (thanks to Bob Morganthau, at least we still have one honest broker in this town. You'll be missed!)
But I'm wondering something: after all the big crane collapses last year, did the press do any in-depth investigative reports about the problems at DOB -- and what caused people to die? Did they try to hold the mayor accountable for what happened on his watch?
No!
The press can't hold him accountable even when a major scandal hits.
This was the headline of the story today: "Mob Infiltration Is Seen in New York City Agency." What a disgraceful use of the passive voice! Who was editing this story? Mob infiltration "is seen"? Is seen? What kind of sloppy, badly written headline is this? This is supposed to be The New York Times for cryin' out loud!
Now if the press wasn't trying to protect the Bloomberg administration and guarentee his re-election, I'm sure the headline for this story would be very different.
Certainly this story would be big news and treated much more sensationally if we had a Democratic mayor. For example, if we had a Democrat as mayor, let's call him Mayor D, all of the newspaper around town would scream today "Mayor D Tied to the Mob!" And there'd be story after story asking what the mayor knew and when did he know it, why didn't he try to stop it, why did he let a major government department in this town put New Yorkers' lives in danger, and on and on and on. If this was happening under a Democratic Mayor who wasn't worth billions of dollars, believe me, the press would be all over this asking questions. It'd be cheap suit time. This would be a full blown scandal! Which it is!
But it's not.
Mayor Mike escapes any and all culpability. This story mentions the Bloomberg administration once ... and it doesn't mention the mayor by name. Clearly, as far as the press is concerned, Teflon Mike couldn't have anything to do with this sordidness. He's too honest, too principled, too good a Mayor.
And maybe he's not corrupt. Maybe he's just a detached mayor who doesn't know what's going on at his own DOB. Hmmmm ... maybe Mayor Mike isn't quite as competent as everyone thinks he is? Maybe he shouldn't get a third term. Oh wait, of course he should. After all, he's rich!
I'll give the Times some credit: they at least reported this story. The Daily News and the Post, from what I can see on their websites today, have ignored it completely. Hopefully they will cover it soon and ask Bloomberg tough questions about it but I won't hold my breath.
This is just a perfect example of press hypocrisy in this town -- and how it goes out of its way to protect the powerful, wealthy, connected, and Republican. The New York City press went into hysterics over the City Council "slush fund" story, they covered Eliot Spitzer's hooker problem like it was Watergate, the flailed away at ACORN -- basically, any time a Democrat or progressive person or group anywhere puts a foot wrong, it becomes blaring front page news, a "scandal", an "outrage", yada, yada, yada.
But a major department in an administration run by a wealthy Republican is infiltrated by the mob and possibly results in multiple deaths and the press ... doesn't consider it a major story ... doesn't have the time to cover it ... it just doesn't rate as important. Just shrugs its collective shoulders and ... moves on.
So what's the point of really caring?
It's not like my little blog post is going to change anything. The poor stay poor and the rich get rich. But actually it's deeper than that: the rich continue to consolidate their power and face no consequences and the rest of us continue to be punished (and sometimes even killed) for not being rich. And I'm sure that in the minds of Bloomberg and his cronies and most of the press, that's just fine and how it should be and serves us right.
Remember those crane collapses which resulted in several deaths? That was due to false safety reports and bumbling by the DOB. Apparently the Bloomberg Department of Buildings is a cesspool of corruption.
However, what's most amazing about this is that Mayor Bloomberg has not been questioned or grilled by the press about any of this. The press has been totally docile and quiet. For some reason, Teflon Mike has avoided scrutiny or any fallout from this scandal. It's only coming out now because the Manhattan DA handed down indictments (thanks to Bob Morganthau, at least we still have one honest broker in this town. You'll be missed!)
But I'm wondering something: after all the big crane collapses last year, did the press do any in-depth investigative reports about the problems at DOB -- and what caused people to die? Did they try to hold the mayor accountable for what happened on his watch?
No!
The press can't hold him accountable even when a major scandal hits.
This was the headline of the story today: "Mob Infiltration Is Seen in New York City Agency." What a disgraceful use of the passive voice! Who was editing this story? Mob infiltration "is seen"? Is seen? What kind of sloppy, badly written headline is this? This is supposed to be The New York Times for cryin' out loud!
Now if the press wasn't trying to protect the Bloomberg administration and guarentee his re-election, I'm sure the headline for this story would be very different.
Certainly this story would be big news and treated much more sensationally if we had a Democratic mayor. For example, if we had a Democrat as mayor, let's call him Mayor D, all of the newspaper around town would scream today "Mayor D Tied to the Mob!" And there'd be story after story asking what the mayor knew and when did he know it, why didn't he try to stop it, why did he let a major government department in this town put New Yorkers' lives in danger, and on and on and on. If this was happening under a Democratic Mayor who wasn't worth billions of dollars, believe me, the press would be all over this asking questions. It'd be cheap suit time. This would be a full blown scandal! Which it is!
But it's not.
Mayor Mike escapes any and all culpability. This story mentions the Bloomberg administration once ... and it doesn't mention the mayor by name. Clearly, as far as the press is concerned, Teflon Mike couldn't have anything to do with this sordidness. He's too honest, too principled, too good a Mayor.
And maybe he's not corrupt. Maybe he's just a detached mayor who doesn't know what's going on at his own DOB. Hmmmm ... maybe Mayor Mike isn't quite as competent as everyone thinks he is? Maybe he shouldn't get a third term. Oh wait, of course he should. After all, he's rich!
I'll give the Times some credit: they at least reported this story. The Daily News and the Post, from what I can see on their websites today, have ignored it completely. Hopefully they will cover it soon and ask Bloomberg tough questions about it but I won't hold my breath.
This is just a perfect example of press hypocrisy in this town -- and how it goes out of its way to protect the powerful, wealthy, connected, and Republican. The New York City press went into hysterics over the City Council "slush fund" story, they covered Eliot Spitzer's hooker problem like it was Watergate, the flailed away at ACORN -- basically, any time a Democrat or progressive person or group anywhere puts a foot wrong, it becomes blaring front page news, a "scandal", an "outrage", yada, yada, yada.
But a major department in an administration run by a wealthy Republican is infiltrated by the mob and possibly results in multiple deaths and the press ... doesn't consider it a major story ... doesn't have the time to cover it ... it just doesn't rate as important. Just shrugs its collective shoulders and ... moves on.
So what's the point of really caring?
It's not like my little blog post is going to change anything. The poor stay poor and the rich get rich. But actually it's deeper than that: the rich continue to consolidate their power and face no consequences and the rest of us continue to be punished (and sometimes even killed) for not being rich. And I'm sure that in the minds of Bloomberg and his cronies and most of the press, that's just fine and how it should be and serves us right.
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