Thursday, January 31, 2013

Bloomberg: How Dare You Hold Me Accountable For Sexist Language!

From the Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg on Thursday angrily denied a published report that quoted him checking out a woman’s backside.

"I never said it, and I don't know where it came from,” Hizzoner snarled after a reporter asked him about the comments attributed to him in a New York magazine article.

A reporter for the magazine claimed this week in a profile about City Council Speaker Christine Quinn that he was at a swank upper East Side holiday party where he heard the mayor make an inappropriate comment about a woman.

Scribe Jonathan Van Meter said he was standing by as a friend tried to thank the mayor for his work on gun control when Hizzoner became distracted by the woman.
“Bloomberg gestured toward a woman in a very tight floor-length gown standing nearby and said, ‘Look at the ass on her,’” Van Meter wrote.

In the same story, Quinn admitted that of her political ally that “he’s got a potty mouth.”

Asked Thursday whether the comments were part of a pattern of sexist remarks, Bloomberg took offense to the question.

“That's an outrage for you to say,” he said.

No, it's not an outrage for a reporter to ask a question about a pattern in your behavior.

As noted here, you have had several sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits launched aginst you.

You settled those out of court and got non-disclosure agreements to make sure the alleged victims never talked to the press.

Your company was sued by the EEOC for discrimination against women as well.  
 
It's true, the EEOC did not win the lawsuit, but it's not as if there hasn't been a little smoke around the harassment and discrimination issue for you.

And now comes the New York Magazine article, which sounds believable considering other women in the past have said that you said similar things to them when you were running Bloomberg LP.

There is nothing outrageous for a reporter to ask you about this.

In fact, it would be outrageous for reporters to not ask you about it.

And what is outrageous is your faux outrage over the question.

What comes to mind in your reaction is this: "Thou doth protest too much."

As usual, accountability is for the little people, not the great Mike Bloomberg.

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