On NBC Nightly News, Williams failed to ask Bloomberg about spying during 2004 convention

In an interview on the June 12 edition of NBC's Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams asserted that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) "is getting high marks for how he's running this city," but Williams did not ask Bloomberg about a significant controversy concerning his tenure as mayor: the New York Police Department's surveillance of nonviolent anti-Bush activists and protesters prior to the 2004 Republican National Convention -- a story that, as Media Matters for America noted, has been covered several times in recent months.

In March, Bloomberg defended the surveillance activities by saying, "We were not keeping track of political activities. ... We have no interest in doing that." But the New York Times reported on March 28:

[T]he scope of the preconvention operations, in which officers traveled widely, is just emerging from records in federal lawsuits brought as a result of the mass arrests as well as from still secret reports reviewed by The New York Times.

[...]

[T]he records show that the police did covertly monitor political activity. Virtually every intelligence report, even those about expressly peaceful groups, described the political viewpoints of the organizations.

On the May 17 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, CNN correspondent Tom Foreman reported, "Six hundred pages of secret police files were released to the public [on May 16] as the result of a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union. They reveal that New York's finest began spying on performers like Jay-Z, LL Cool J, and others, months before they were to perform at a protest rally during the GOP convention." Foreman reported that, according to the released documents, police also "monitored websites and a guy known for throwing pies. They spied on meetings of Billionaires for Bush, who were not for Bush at all. ... While some protesters were self-declared anarchists, most planned performances or marches or theater. One group planned to sing about the war." On May 5, The New York Times reported how a January 23, 2004, "secret key findings" report transformed a self-described "pacifist anarchist['s] ... plea for non-violence" into a series of "recommended new activism strategies with regard to the Republican National Convention."

As Media Matters noted, in February 2003, a federal judge -- at the request of the city and with Bloomberg's support -- relaxed requirements governing police surveillance of political groups, which the NYPD had agreed to in 1985 in order to settle a lawsuit over surveillance abuses by the NYPD in the 1960s and 1970s. The Times reported on December 22, 2005, that, in that earlier lawsuit, "the city acknowledged that the Police Department had used infiltrators, undercover agents and fake news reporters to spy on yippies, civil rights advocates, antiwar activists, labor organizers and black power groups." The settlement required, in part, "the creation of an oversight panel that included a civilian appointed by the mayor," and also required that the police "have 'specific information' that a crime was in the works before investigating such groups."

From the July 12 broadcast of NBC's Nightly News:

WILLIAMS: We spent some time with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today. The mayor is being mentioned more and more frequently as a possible candidate for national office: the presidency. As political figures go these days, he is seldom referred to as larger than life, but he is getting high marks for how he's running this city and for improving the quality of life here. He says that's because he tries to live like a New Yorker on a daily basis.

With a small group of NYPD officers in tow, New York's most notable subway commuter boards the Number 4 train for his daily commute to work at City Hall. Because Michael Bloomberg will quickly tell you, it's the fastest way to the office.

[begin video clip]

BLOOMBERG: I will take a subway four times today. We're taking it downtown. I've got an event, a memorial service for Kitty Carlisle Hart in the middle of the day. I'll take the subway up, give a speech, go back downtown, and then come back up tonight for a reception at Gracie Mansion.

WILLIAMS: And even in your SUV, there's no getting through traffic as quickly?

BLOOMBERG: Not a chance.

[end video clip]

WILLIAMS: New Yorkers aren't big on eye contact below ground, but slowly they notice the mayor is on the train. Some say hello. Others go back to the morning paper. He knows for them, this commute is different than it was before 9-11.

[begin video clip]

WILLIAMS: How often does the unthinkable cross your mind? We're under the streets of this city; a lot of people down here, what we hideously in the terrorism business call soft targets these days.

BLOOMBERG: Anything is possible, but the odds are that you will get struck by lightning many times before a terrorist would ever hurt you, and you can't worry about it. You got to leave that to the professionals.

[end video clip]

WILLIAMS: That's pretty much how the mayor sees it. Hire the right people. Go on about your life. Take the subway. Save time. It's all just good business, and business is what made Michael Bloomberg. The diminutive mayor who commutes by subway made his bones as a giant of the financial world. The data terminals bearing his name are on trading desks all over the world. He's worth billions, and so, the theory goes, can't be bought. The man who followed Rudy [Giuliani] into City Hall says he is all about making this city better.

[begin video clip]

WILLIAMS: How are you going to turn this city green, really, in a meaningful way?

BLOOMBERG: In a meaningful way, there are things you can do. I've changed the light bulbs in my house to these compact fluorescent bulbs. It cuts your lighting bill by 60 percent. Same thing in City Hall, and we're doing it through all the city buildings. If you go and you don't use your car, that's a big deal. Lot of pollution goes into the air from your car. You can go right down the list. We're going to plant a million trees. Trees make a big difference. They take pollutants out of the air -- soot and CO2.

[end video clip]

WILLIAMS: Bloomberg is tough on gun control, equally tough on city schools. His smoking law has driven smokers outdoors. He even banned trans-fats from restaurants. Next he wants to charge extra for driving in midtown Manhattan. But beyond New York, what about Washington? He confirms people have talked to him on running for president, and he's got the money. Listen to how he answers the question.

[begin video clip]

WILLIAMS: Honest answer: Would you make a good president?

BLOOMBERG: Oh, I don't -- I've got a job. I just want to be a good mayor.

WILLIAMS: Oh, you must have an opinion on whether or not you'd make a good president of the United States.

BLOOMBERG: No.

WILLIAMS: You wake up and look in the mirror every morning?

BLOOMBERG: No, I don't ever look in the mirror and think about, "Would I be a good president?" I do think that this country has to do some things to save our reputation overseas. I think we're unwilling to face the problems of who's going to pay your Social Security when you retire; who's going to pay for health care. There are a lot of these issues that Washington is not willing to face, but I don't think you can blame the president or the Republicans or the Democrats or the Senate or the House. It's everybody in Washington.

[end video clip]

WILLIAMS: Whatever his future plans may be, Michael Bloomberg says he misses the private life he enjoyed when he was in business. He knows his time on the job now belongs to the people of New York, but his private time, as he often tells the City Hall press corps, belongs to him, and that includes the times when he hops on his private jet to depart for his private getaway in Bermuda.