Government is always secretive. That's why the Freedom of Information Law was passed, and that's why we have reporters, to get us the information that we can't get.

The administration of Mayor Mike Bloomberg is more secretive than most, however.

All Q. and No A. at City Hall
By GABE PRESSMAN, NY TIMES Editorial
Published: June 27, 2004

MAYOR BLOOMBERG, the 108th mayor of New York, may go down in history as a financial wizard who helped keep the city afloat when it was drowning in debt. But it should also be noted that, in certain ways, he was one of the most inaccessible mayors in the last half-century.

He has press conferences. He makes speeches. He occasionally meets with the editorial boards of newspapers. But his press conferences are very limited. The man who built a media empire for himself shows great disdain for the representatives of the news media who try to question him at City Hall - or elsewhere.

While Mr. Bloomberg's schedule calls for question-and-answer sessions with reporters, he generally permits just one question per reporter - and this limits information drastically. If a reporter tries to follow up on an answer, Mr. Bloomberg ducks by swiftly pointing to another reporter, inviting a change in subject.

As a reporter who has covered nine mayors over the last 54 years, I know that public figures don't always answer the question they're asked. For this reason, follow-up questions are essential because they often force officials to cough up information that they might otherwise withhold.

The mayor's approach is particularly dispiriting because his predecessors have been far more forthcoming in their press conferences. It's true that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani barred video cameras south of Canal Street after the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Bloomberg and his police commissioner, Ray Kelly, deserve praise for opening up the streets again. In the Blue Room at City Hall, however, it's another story.

Mr. Bloomberg's role as czar of a multibillion-dollar company gave him experience in ruling over his own board. But apparently it didn't prepare him for the scrutiny the press exercises as a First Amendment right. Although Mayor Giuliani could be combative, as a skilled lawyer, he seemed to enjoy jousting with journalists. David Dinkins may not have always enjoyed it, but he felt it was his duty to answer all questions at a news conference. And Ed Koch was delighted to spar with reporters. He thought he could get the better of any one of us.

I'm not the only one who has noticed Mr. Bloomberg's question rationing. On the day after the long-awaited budget agreement was announced, a reporter complained that Mr. Bloomberg allowed only five questions at a press conference. Another reporter, Dominick Carter of New York 1, told me that the only way to get the mayor to take a follow-up question is to shout and make a spectacle of yourself. Richard Steier of The Chief, the weekly newspaper for municipal employees, says a reporter often can get by an initial evasion by other public officials with a follow-up question, but that doesn't happen with this mayor. A reporter for a major newspaper says, "I think maybe Bloomberg is trying to avoid putting his foot in his mouth."

The mayor isn't the only one to blame. The press, after all, is letting him get away with this behavior. The mayor has his job and we have ours: to stop the filibuster, to cut through the spin, to clear out the press-conference fog.

I remember when New York reporters, even the uninformed ones, were tough, feisty, irreverent. Some of the younger reporters today seem not to know those days ever existed. They have grown up in the authoritarian eras of Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg.

Journalism is a competitive business. But I would love to see reporters, in the spirit of solidarity, back each other up. If the mayor brushes a journalist off after one question, it would be good if another reporter followed up that question. If the mayor balks again, a third person should stay on the case. If the mayor really wants to clear the air with the press, the New York Press Club invites him to a forum where he can air his grievances and we can air ours.

Mutual understanding would be helpful. But it would be good for both politicians and journalists if the old adversarial spirit were reborn. It might bring out the best in all of us. And the people are entitled to no less.


Gabe Pressman is president of the New York Press Club Foundation and a senior correspondent for WNBC-TV.