Emboldened by her sure re-election, Mayor Michelle Wu is now taking a web page out of Donald Trump’s playbook, attacking the media for not absolutely backing her assertion that Boston is the most secure main metropolis within the nation.
The heavy-handed Wu, who received 72% of the vote on this month’s preliminary election, forcing her solely opponent to drop out, apparently desires extra.
Wu is now shifting to buff up her picture by having complete management of what the media writes about Boston.
Wu, who has acquired nearly common optimistic protection in most publications, internet sites, and radio and TV stations in Massachusetts, complained falsely that the media hasn’t written a “single piece” on town’s low murder fee.
She made the accusation on certainly one of her many media protected areas, a fawning radio discuss present she will get to look on each month. She additionally expanded on her beef with the media in a speech to a enterprise group the place a lot of the main executives are Wu supporters as a result of they don’t need to cross her and face retribution.
In taking purpose on the media, Wu included the pleasant Boston Globe, owned by the Purple Sox’s John Henry, who has a serious growth undertaking within the Fenway space.
“Particularly for those who could not dwell and breathe Boston day-after-day, typically what you learn within the Globe or different shops picks at various things which might be occurring,” she stated.
By that, Wu apparently means she doesn’t need the media reporting on any crimes, just like the shootings, stabbings, robberies and assaults that happen in Boston nearly day-after-day.
Just like the stabbing in East Boston yesterday, or the bare man armed with a big knife who got here out of a Beacon Hill restaurant. Or the rampant crime and drug use within the South Finish round Mass and Cass.
“We need to get higher each single day, however final 12 months Boston had the most secure 12 months ever on report. The variety of homicides that town recorded was far and away the bottom of any main metropolis nationally, and the bottom that we had seen since we began recording knowledge 70 years in the past,” she stated.
“All through that complete time, the Boston Globe didn’t even write a single piece, and to at the present time, nonetheless hasn’t actually delved into how that occurred,” the primary time period mayor added.
It’s ironic that Wu is popping to President Trump’s technique for attacking the media, since she is certainly one of Trump’s primary enemies. But when it really works, why not?
“Boston’s murder fee was by far the bottom in absolute numbers and per capita by residents, and definitely the bottom in our metropolis’s historical past,” she stated. “Sure members of our beautiful, accountable, native press corps jogged my memory that for those who minimize it a sure means, Mesa, Arizona had a barely decrease fee than we did. I’m sorry, Mesa, however for those who don’t have all sports activities groups, you’re not an actual metropolis, okay?”
Wu apparently doesn’t rely San Diego as a serious metropolis, as a result of they don’t have a soccer, hockey or basketball crew. That enables her to dismiss San Diego’s murder fee, which is decrease than Boston’s. Identical with Fort Value, Texas and Las Vegas, which even have decrease violent crime charges than Boston however don’t rely as “main” cities below Wu’s handy sports activities method.
Wu’s cost in regards to the media was not a mistake or a random remark – it had a particular objective. She desires the story of Boston informed her means.
She is aware of that her technique might have a chilling impact, forcing the media to conform along with her request or face repercussions, like slowing down Henry’s growth tasks.
It’s already working, because the Globe was pressured to place hyperlinks in its story to indicate that it’s been towing her line, all of the items which have been written about Boston’s low murder fee.
However perhaps it will simply be higher for Wu if her press workplace controls the narrative about Boston any further.
