New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says journalist “class traitors” are making sure Sen. Bernard Sanders’ 2020 campaign is getting a better shake than his 2016 bid.

Mr. de Blasio made the remarks in a weekend column in The New York Times, “What Bernie Sanders Gets Right About the Media.”

Writer Ben Smith detailed the Vermont senator’s ongoing critiques of “the corporate media” while also noting a change in coverage over the past four years.

“In 2020, far more than in 2016, the media has also captured his strengths: his consistency, his commitment to the poor, his deep popularity with young people,” Mr. Smith wrote Sunday. “A top supporter of Mr. Sanders, New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, offered an explanation for that in an interview. Capitalist ownership or not, the mayor said, ‘There are plenty of journalists who are class traitors.’”

Mr. De Blasio explained in further detail why said “traitors” were welcome last month.

“New Yorkers know all too well the damage caused by Donald Trump’s xenophobia, bigotry, and recklessness, and Bernie is the candidate to take him on and take him down,” the mayor said Feb. 14. “I have called for a bold, progressive agenda, and that’s exactly what Senator Sanders has championed for decades. I am proud to endorse a true progressive leader who will fight for working New Yorkers and families across the country.”

A senior MSNBC producer, however, told Mr. Smith that talent within the network sees Mr. Sanders as a rhetorical cousin of the president.

“What a whole lot of people here see is the same thing as Trump,” the source said.”

“That perspective is widely shared in the news business: That Mr. Sanders — and really any politician who is hostile, or even cranky, to the media — is following in President Trump’s footsteps,” Mr. Smith added.

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