On Tuesday, The Times of London retracted a story critical of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, after it was revealed that the paper printed phony quotes purporting to be from former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The Times is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which also owns Fox News, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal.
The retracted story, which is archived at this link, ran with the headline “Zohran Mamdani ally Bill de Blasio says his policies ‘don’t add up.’” It purportedly quoted de Blasio voicing concerns about Mamdani’s policy proposals—but the quotes were fake.
“The story in the Times of London is entirely false and fabricated,” de Blasio posted on X after the story was published. “It was just brought to my attention and I’m appalled. I never spoke to that reporter and never said those things. Those quotes aren’t mine, don’t reflect my views.”
The paper then pulled the article and claimed in a statement that “our reporter had been misled by an individual falsely claiming to be the former New York mayor.” The story was written by Bevan Hurley, described by the Times as a “senior reporter” for the U.S.
Hurley has written several articles on the New York City mayoral race, with many of them critical of Mamdani.
The Times is owned by News UK, the United Kingdom division of Murdoch’s international media empire. It is led by CEO Rebekah Brooks, who was tied to the phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure of Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper and cost the company millions. (Brooks was found not guilty of charges related to the scandal.)
Murdoch’s outlets, particularly the New York Post and Fox News, have pumped out a near-endless stream of stories meant to derail Mamdani’s candidacy. The outlets have pushed for his deportation and tried to invent a scandal after he referred to his father’s cousin as his “aunt.”
The anti-Mamdani campaign doesn’t appear to be working. Polls show Mamdani leading in the race against Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after he lost to Mamdani in the Democratic primary.
The embarrassing episode shows just how eager Murdoch’s media machine is for negative stories about Mamdani, and how that push for smears has now backfired.
Oliver Willis October 29, 2025 at 11:39PM From Daily Kos
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