Accept no imitations.
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In a September op-ed, former mayor Bill de Blasio officially endorsed Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, praising his ambitious platform calling for universal child care, a rent freeze for tenants in stabilized apartments, and free buses.
“We don’t just need Zohran Mamdani to be our mayor because he has the right ideas, or because they can be achieved. We need him because in his heart and in his bones he cannot accept a city that prices out the people who built it and keep it running,” he wrote in the Daily News.
But the local political scene was briefly stunned when a reputable British newspaper published an article featuring quotes of the former mayor seemingly bashing Mamdani’s proposals, statements that de Blasio emphatically said he never made.
“I want to be 100% clear: The story in the Times of London is entirely false and fabricated. It was just brought to my attention and I’m appalled,” de Blasio wrote on social media. “I never spoke to that reporter and never said those things. Those quotes aren’t mine, don’t reflect my views.”
On Tuesday, the Times of London posted a piece with the headline “Zohran Mamdani Ally Bill de Blasio Says His Policies Don’t Add Up,” featuring quotes from de Blasio claiming he had gone through the assemblyman’s proposals and found them lacking. One quote read, “In my view, the math doesn’t hold up under scrutiny, and the political hurdles are substantial.”
Then de Blasio quickly issued his own statement disavowing the article, telling the public that he never spoke to the Times of London and demanding a retraction. “It is an absolute violation of journalistic ethics. The truth is I fully support @ZohranKMamdani and believe his vision is both necessary and achievable,” he said.
Within the hour, the Times of London had removed the article from its website and a spokesman issued a statement saying its reporter had been duped. “The Times has apologised to Bill de Blasio and removed the article immediately after discovering that our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor,” the paper said in a statement to the New York Times.
The newspaper did not provide any additional details as to how the deception occurred. But Semafor reported Wednesday that Bevan Hurly, the reporter on the piece, emailed the purported de Blasio and received the critical Mamdani response in return, but the email address did not belong to the former mayor:
Three people familiar with the situation told Semafor that Hurley reached out to an email address the reporter believed belonged to the former mayor of New York. It’s unclear where he got the address, or who it actually belongs to. In a statement shared with outlets including Semafor, a News UK spokesperson blamed the debacle on whoever that email address belongs to, saying the paper had “apologised to Bill de Blasio and removed the article immediately after discovering that our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor.”
Sources tell Semafor that the article was assigned as part of a push from management for more Mamdani coverage, which Semafor characterized as “largely hostile.”
The Times of London is the oldest daily newspaper in the U.K. with a storied history dating back to its founding in 1785. The paper was purchased by media magnate Rupert Murdoch in 1981 and is currently operated by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
But the article still made the rounds despite its early deletion. The New York Post quickly aggregated the fake quotes, and staffers with former governor Andrew Cuomo’s campaign shared the Post story, which was later updated with de Blasio’s actual quotes refuting it.
This post has been updated.
