Mayor Michael Bloomberg accused the New York Times of racial bias during a press conference about stop-and-frisk on Tuesday
He defended the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk practice, and also criticized supporters of legislation for an independent inspector general.
Then, he turned his attention to the city's media organizations, which he claimed have ignored victims of gun violence despite criticizing stop-and-frisk. He said that media outlets, including the Times, did not report the shooting death of 17-year old Alphonza Bryant in the Bronx last week.
"There was not even a mention of his murder in our paper of record, the New York Times," Bloomberg said. "All the news that's fit to print' did not include the murder of 17-year-old Alphonza Bryant. Do you think that if a white, 17-year-old prep student from Manhattan had been murdered, the Times would have ignored it? Me neither. I believe that the life of every 17-year-old and every child and every adult is precious."
He continued, "The fact of the matter is, when police stop and ask a 17 year-old a question based on a reasonable suspicion of a crime, there is outrage, yet when a teenager coming home is shot ... there is silence."
The Times' Joe Nocera cited Bryant's killing in a column about gun deaths last Thursday, though the paper did not report on the murder itself.
A spokeperson for the Times responded in a statement to Politico on Tuesday, calling the mayor's remarks "absurd."
The Times' editorial board has voiced its opposition to stop-and-frisk in several editorials in the past. Last May, Bloomberg weighed in on one Times editorial, slamming the piece's suggestion that the city look to Philadelphia to curb stop-and-frisk abuses.
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