Mayor Bill de Blasio participates in a rally against President Donald Trump's policies. | Greg Allen/Invision/AP De Blasio: Fox News paved way for Trump

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that the “preconditions” that led to President Donald Trump’s election were built, over many years, by News Corp. and Fox News.

The Democratic executive, who is running for re-election this year and has clashed with reporters in City Hall, also said his fights with local reporters and propensity to call out “ideologically driven news outlets” are not like Trump’s skirmishes with the fourth estate.


De Blasio’s comments came in response to questions from a reporter with WNYC during an unrelated press conference. When asked about Trump’s misstatements and factual inaccuracies, de Blasio said the media was playing a historical role in keeping Trump and the White House in check.

“You have this willingness now to say factually inaccurate things constantly, openly and almost brag about it,” de Blasio said of Trump and his aides. Turning to the reporters in the room, he added, “Now, I think you guys play a crucial, crucial role in, not just fact-checking — you’ve always done that — but in literally in keeping a kind of scorecard you never had to keep before.”

When asked if his own issues with reporters undermined journalists’ work, the mayor said they did not. De Blasio said he was sparring, namely, with coverage from biased outlets.

“There are ideologically-driven news outlets, Breitbart. Does anyone in this room want to tell me Breitbart is objective? Or attempting to be objective? Breitbart would tell you they’re not trying to be objective,” de Blasio said.

“So, if I say an outlet has a historically ideological agenda, I’m very comfortable with that. I would argue that News Corp. — there, I said it for you — that News Corp., Fox, the Post, but especially Fox on a national level, built a lot of the preconditions for Donald Trump. For years. For years and years and years. I think it was systematic. I think it was ideological."

News Corp. was the parent company of Fox News and the New York Post until the company split in 2013. Fox is now part of 21st Century Fox, and the Post is part of News Corp. Spokespeople for the New York Post and News Corp. declined to comment. Spokespeople for Fox and Breitbart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Breitbart is a website whose former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is now a top aide to Trump. Brannon recently told the New York Times that media organizations are “the opposition party.” Trump later echoed that sentiment.

Criticism of the Post is not new for the mayor. Late last year, de Blasio referred to the paper as a “right-wing rag” and “propaganda rag.” Though de Blasio said he would not “ban” people from press conference, he did last year refuse to call on a Post reporter.