This afternoon Mayor Bill de Blasio announced seven appointments to his press staff: Phillip Walzak as Press Secretary, Rebecca Kirszner Katz as Special Advisor to the Mayor, Marti Adams as First Deputy Press Secretary, Angela Banks as Director of Operations for the Press Office, Maibe Ponet as Deputy Press Secretary, Wiley Norvell as Deputy Press Secretary and Mahen Gunaratna as Director of Research and Media Analysis.
Following statements by the mayor and his appointees, Mayor de Blasio answered questions from the press. Topics included his press office operations and media strategy, whether he likes the media, media strategy lessons from his campaign, whether he ever considered a career in journalism, the council speaker candidacy of Melissa Mark-Viverito, funding for his pre-K/after school program initiative and possible elimination of member items in the city council. Here is his full Q&A.
Update – de Blasio & the Press:
Many of the questions concerned Mayor de Blasio’s relationship with the press, both personally and professionally. Here are excerpts featuring some of those questions.
Update #2 – de Blasio’s News Sources:
We look at Mayor de Blasio’s reply when Capital New York reporter Azi Paybarah asked the mayor how he gets his news. (The July report referenced in this report can be seen here.)
Update #3 – Maibe Ponet:
Here is Mayor de Blasio’s introduction of Deputy Press Secretary Maibe Ponet.