NYC Mayor Adams touts wins, then complains (again) about media coverage

Mayor Adams gave himself a generous pat on the back Friday, claiming his administration scored “unprecedented victories” during his first year in office and whining that the city’s tabloids haven’t given him enough ink for all the “W’s” he’s claimed.

Adams’ specifically touted his efforts to establish a land trust for the New York City Housing Authority, provide dyslexia screenings to school kids and make childcare affordable for families as keystone accomplishments from his first year in office. Those issues have, in fact, been covered by the Daily News and other news outlets.

But Adams, who spoke Friday during an appearance on Caribbean Power Jam’s “Reset Show,” claimed that “you don’t read and hear about” about any of his many accomplishments.

“We just can’t continue to allow, you know, the outside influencers [to] define the good work we’re doing. If you were to pick up the tabloids, you would think this administration didn’t have any W’s, didn’t have any victories, when it is unprecedented victories that we did last year,” Adams said.

“All of these victories — you don’t read and hear about them. You hear about all of these petty, clickable items. You know, how do we get people to click on our articles so we can have people look and see and read.”

Adams’ remarks Friday are not the first criticisms he’s leveled at the press in recent days. To bypass coverage from the city’s news outlets, Adams announced last month that he’d launch a podcast and newsletter that he claimed will counteract “distorted” journalism.

“I want to speak directly to the people of this city,” he said at the time.

It’s unclear exactly what “clickable items” Adams was referring to in his Friday comments, but two of his top commissioners have so far left his administration against a backdrop of controversy.

One of them, Eric Ulrich, Adams’ former Buildings Department commissioner, resigned in November amid a criminal probe into illegal gambling. More recently, Adams’ Social Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins stepped down earlier this week amid questions over his handling of escalating homelessness and the migrant crisis.

Bill Neidhardt, who served as press secretary for former Mayor Bill de Blasio, said Adams isn’t necessarily off to complain about the tabloids — a common target of mayors for years — but also noted that his first year in office didn’t give him a clear narrative or win on public safety, the fundamental issue he ran on two years ago.

“What did he run on? Reducing crime. Guess what? People are not happy about crime. That’s why he feels like the W’s aren’t being recognized — because the stats and the polls reflect that,” he said. “But he’s not wrong about the tabloids in that when I walk by the newsstand every morning, I don’t see good news.”