Mayor Bloomberg apologizes to disabled reporter, sort of

From The New York Daily News:

Mayor Bloomberg sort of apologized April 17 to the reporter he singled out when his tape recorder suddenly played during a news conference.

"The mayor said that he was sorry if I took any offense to the way he said it," said Michael Harris, (pictured) who writes for the Examiner Web site and uses a wheelchair.

"While I may feel humiliated by the mayor, I'm here to say I accept his apology," said Harris, who also uses hearing aids.

A photographer accidentally bumped Harris' jacket during Gov. Paterson's gay-marriage news conference Thursday, turning on the recorder and playing tape of an earlier rally.

Bloomberg stopped his speech for 1 minute and 36 seconds, saying he would not continue with the disruption, while Harris struggled to reach it.

Paterson, who is legally blind, tried to defuse the tension with a joke. Council Speaker Christine Quinn whispered, "He's disabled" to the mayor.

"Okay, I understand that," Bloomberg replied. "He can still turn it off."

A day later, the mayor spoke to Harris privately for a few minutes between two events in Coney Island.

"The mayor said that he was sorry and talked about how he treats all reporters the same," mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser said.

"The mayor said he would have done this to anybody," Harris said later outside City Hall. "The only thing that bothered me was that the mayor made a scene out of it."

Harris said he has received hundreds of messages of support on his Facebook page, s
well as a message from Rep. Anthony Weiner - a potential challenger to Bloomberg - offering to meet him for a beer.

Harris plans to write about the ordeal for his examinerny.com site - where all three advertisements have been purchased by Bloomberg's mayoral campaign.