Daily News Union to Mayor Adams: let our reporter do his job

The Daily News Union hand-delivered an open letter to Mayor Adams today, demanding he walk back his claim to ban our senior City Hall reporter, Chris Sommerfeldt, from future press briefings.

The letter reads as follows:

To Mayor Eric Adams:

We, the members of the Daily News Union, are writing to demand the immediate reversal of your supposed "ban" on Daily News reporter Chris Sommerfeldt from your weekly off-topic press conferences.

You have not called on Chris at one of these events in more than three months.

Earlier today, when Chris raised a question about your ballot line in the upcoming mayoral race, you chastised him for "calling out of line" - asking a question without being called on.

"You must have done that in school," you sing-songed over him as he tried to ask his question. "Stop calling out."

You then proceeded to instruct your staff, "If he does that again, he's not to come into our [press] conferences"

"You're not going to come into my off-topic and be disrespectful," you continued.

When Chris again tried to ask you about your ballot line, you told your staff, "He did it again. Make sure security knows he's not allowed back into this room."

Chris was doing his job. The only person being disrespectful was you.

Unlike previous mayoral administrations, you have instructed your press staff to only allow off-topic questions at one event per week.

To ban a reporter from future press conferences for doing the very thing a press conference is designed to facilitate -- asking a question -- shows a flagrant disregard for the role of the press and for our colleague's professionalism.

We demand you revoke this ban immediately.

Respectfully,

The members of the Daily News Union,
a unit of the NewsGuild of New York
CWA Local 31003