Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner tore into New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday, condemning the Democratic leader for invoking his race to bemoan unfavorable press coverage.
What did Adams say?
At a press conference on Tuesday, Adams voiced frustration with media coverage of a recent meeting he held with New York state leaders, and he claimed a lack of diversity in newsrooms is distorting coverage of his administration.
"I'm a black man that’s the mayor, but my story is being interpreted by people who don’t look like me. We gotta be honest about that," Adams said. "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?"
"My role as mayor is being interpreted through the prisms of your realities and not mine," he continued.
"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 from your prisms."
Adams then charged New York City media to "diversify your newsroom, so I can look out and see people who look like me."
How did Faulkner respond?
Speaking on "Outnumbered," Faulkner described Adams' comments as "cowardly."
Noting that Adams was hired not because of the color black, but because of the color blue, a reference to his 22 years of law enforcement service, Harris revealed that
Adams has ignored her — a black woman — ever since rising to political prominence.
"How black, by the way, do you have to be? Do not make me pull out the receipts of how many times I personally have reached out to this mayor. My show was the first place he ever landed on this network," she said. "Then he was running for mayor and he wanted something different."
"I get it, OK. But I'm still a reporter, I'm still a journalist," Faulkner continued. "It is not about what we look like. For the mayor to say that is really shortsighted because the ink is also one color. When they print those newspapers, they don’t care about the color of your skin. What they care about is have you brought down the crime statistics. ... So, I’m just asking on behalf of all of those who might be offended by what you’ve said because even when I show up, no matter what you think may come out of my mouth, I’m still the reporter whether you can see the color of my skin or not."
"It is offensive, but you know what it is mostly? It’s cowardly. That’s not what you expect from a 22-year veteran of the NYPD. How disappointing. How cowardly of him not to take questions. 'I’m going to stave off access from the press'; maybe he caught that from President Biden when he was here for the first of two [NYPD] funerals," Faulkner said.
"You heard the mayor speak beautifully at Jason Rivera’s funeral in the eulogy. And then about a week later, the president shows up and suddenly I’m not taking questions and the media are racist, or not black enough — or whatever he’s saying," she added.
"He's dropping the race card. He’s pointing the fingers at newsrooms and you’re not enough. You know what? You are not enough. Sit down and take some questions," Faulkner concluded.
Harris Faulkner: This was a cowardly move by Eric Adamswww.youtube.com
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