Showing posts with label Sam Roberts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sam Roberts. Show all posts

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Sam Roberts Stops City Hall Reporter Kate Taylor From Fully Discussing Council Speaker Backroom Deals

This Week In Self-Censoring, Corporate Newspaper Editors

On this week-end's edition of The New York Times Close-Up on NY1, the editor Sam Roberts asked City Hall reporter Kate Taylor to give a report back on the Council speaker race. Mr. Roberts only tolerated the most brief of report backs ever provided in the show's history. The instant that Ms. Taylor reported that leading Council speaker candidate Melissa Mark-Viverito may not have the votes needed to win the speakership, Mr. Roberts said, "We'll leave it right there," or something similar to that. Mr. Roberts had to cut off Ms. Taylor, before she could give the public a report back on all the corrupt backroom deals being wagered in the desperate power grab waged by Ms. Mark-Viverito's camp.

Even though very little scrutiny is being put on Councilmember Daniel Garodnick, Ms. Mark-Viverito's challenger for the speakership, both candidates have "manned up" with teams of real estate lobbyists/enablers. The Council speaker will be selected on Wednesday, when the next session of the municipal legislature will first convene in the new year. It remains to be seen if, before then, either side really becomes so disconsolate that they may actually break the kinds of laws that will trigger a federal corruption investigation. In the fight for the speakership, Ms. Mark-Viverito's team of lobbyists have thus far flouted campaign finance regulations, one of her lobbyists faces a Campaign Finance Board investigation, and Ms. Mark-Viverito has been engulfed in allegations of ethics violations.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Racism And Police Brutality Concerns Can Go On, Depending On Schools' Chancellor Pick : Sam Roberts

Sam Roberts Alluded To Believing That Bratton's Racial Profiling Concerns Would Be Placated By An Agreeable Schools' Chancellor

Last week, Michael Grynbaum said on The New York Times Close-Up program on NY1 that he noticed that there had been some "hand-wringing in the progressive blogosphere" about the appointment of William Bratton as the next New York Police Department commissioner, adding that there were concerns about how would the Bratton appointment affect stop-and-frisk.

Stop-and-frisk is a controversial program of the NYPD, which has been found to be a state-sponsored program that discriminates based on race, violating the civil liberties and civil rights of millions of innocent New Yorkers caught in its indiscriminate dragnet use.

Mr. Grynbaum concluded his remarks on this subject by saying that some of the mayor-elect's leftist base were troubled by the appointment

To these concerns, Sam Roberts flippantly said, "And maybe that will be alleviated in the coming week, when he is likely to name a schools' chancellor," as if the racism and police brutality of the NYPD "will be alleviated" by what ? The naming of a minority schools' chancellor ?

Is Mr. Roberts out of touch ? Does he need cultural competency training ?