Yellow Journalism and Newsweek’s Hit Piece On NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani

I am not an apologist for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. I would not have voted for him had I been eligible to. And I don’t believe that any of his policies can help the affordable housing crisis in NYC. But that doesn’t justify the totally unwarranted attack by Newsweek reporter Didi Tatlow, who suggested that Mayor Mamdani is part of an effort to forge ties with Communist China.

The headline to her article in Newsweek’s Saturday Periscope Section says:

Members of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s political organization have developed links with the Chinese Communist Party, raising questions about the extent of Beijing’s influence within the group.

Right off the bat, Tatlow’s piece contains a bald-faced lie. It is true that he is the most well-known member of the DSA, but he did not start the organization, and he does not hold a position of authority within it. It is not his political organization, full stop.

This falsehood is repeated in the first paragraph of her hit piece:

Democratic Socialists of America members, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR Zohran Mamdani’s political organization, have been cultivating connections with the Chinese Communist Party officials and agreeing to take pro-China positions, according to extensive minutes of internal meetings seen by Newsweek.

Once again, Tatlow falsely claims that the DSA is Mayor Mamdani’s organization. While it is true that, historically, certain political figures were so closely linked to an organization that it was said to be their organization. Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Party, Chairman Mao, the Chinese Communist Party, President Donald Trump, MAGA. But in the Mayor’s case, he has never led even the local chapter of DSA and has expressed his differences with DSA’s national platform.

Indeed, he was not even endorsed by the national organization and expressly disavowed major planks in its platform, such as defunding the police. CNN, https://www.wral.com/story/mamdani-faces-pressure-in-nyc-mayor-s-race-over-democratic-socialist-ideas/22136005/

Finally, Tatlow cites DSA’s New York Chapter’s website, which describes itself as “Zohran’s political home” and DSA’s claim that the Mayor’s victory would not have been possible without it. While it may be true that Mandami’s election was made possible because of the organizational efforts of DSA’s local chapter, How Socialism Won in NYC’s Mayoral Primary: Jacobin, https://jacobin.com/2025/08/nyc-dsa-zohran-mamdani-mayoral, that has nothing to do with whether the Mayor had any knowledge of, or connection to, the members of the DSA who met with officials of the Communist Party to discuss closer ties.

I wonder if Newsweek would have thought Ms. Tatlow’s article worthy of publishing if it were just about a socialist organization’s efforts to forge closer ties to the world’s leading socialist state, had she not thrown Mayor Mamdani into the mix. But who knows? Smear campaigns have a long and storied history in American Journalism. Just ask Thomas Jefferson. Ferling, John. Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800. Oxford University Press, 2004.

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