The Times of London’s international screw-up over falsely attributing quotes to former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wasn’t because the person who provided said quotes was impersonating de Blasio. Instead, it was a person with roughly the same name.
The man who responded to a Times reporter with a quote bashing Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s policies is a 59-year-old wine importer from Long Island named Bill DeBlasio, according to Semafor. The man, who spoke to the outlet through his Long Island home’s Ring doorbell while he was in Florida, said he never tried to present himself as the former mayor.
“I never once said I was the mayor. He never addressed me as the mayor,” DeBlasio explained. “So I just gave him my opinion.”
The episode rankled New York political circles after the paper published quotes attributed to the former mayor, a public supporter of Mamdani, suggesting the Democratic socialist’s policies “don’t add up.” The real de Blasio lashed out at ToL on X after Andrew Cuomo’s campaign seized on the remarks, denying he made the statements and urging the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper to retract the story.
“It is an absolute violation of journalistic ethics,” he posted. “The truth is I fully support [Mamdani] and believe his vision is both necessary and achievable.”
The paper took the story down within 90 minutes of posting it. It said it discovered “that our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor” in a statement to the New York Times and subsequently apologized to de Blasio.
The Long Island DeBlasio said he received am email from Times reporter Bevan Hurley this week asking for the former mayor’s “insights on Mr Mandani’s ambitious agenda, potential obstacles, and whether the sums add up.” While DeBlasio — who noted that “low-class Italians use a little ‘d’” — knew the reporter meant to reach former mayor de Blasio, he decided to have fun.
He used ChatGPT to draft a response taking issue with Mamdani’s plans and sent it over, not bothering to clarify that a private citizen was the one opining.
“It was all in good fun. I never thought it would make it to print,” DeBlasio told Semafor, claiming he thought the reporter would “have all his people check it out.”
The Times did not respond to TheWrap’s additional request for comment.
