News outlets around the United States are facing a political onslaught from allies of President Trump. A newspaper synonymous with Long Island is fighting back.
A legal filing this week by the publication, Newsday, signals that it will sue Nassau County for repeatedly violating its First Amendment rights. It accused the county and its powerful executive, Bruce Blakeman, of retaliating for its coverage of Mr. Blakeman’s administration, which has taken high-profile steps to demonstrate support for Mr. Trump’s most divisive policies.
The complaint to be filed in the Eastern District of New York accuses officials of ignoring Newsday’s reporters and illegally revoking its status as the official newspaper of Nassau County, thus removing an important revenue stream from paid public notices. That distinction was awarded to the conservative New York Post in December.
“The residents of Nassau County have the right to transparency from their government officials, and taxpayer dollars should never be used to intimidate the press and limit information the public needs,” Debby Krenek, Newsday’s publisher, said in a statement.
Chris Boyle, a spokesman for Mr. Blakeman, wrote in an emailed statement that the lawsuit was “foolish, frivolous and completely devoid of merit.”
“The Blakeman administration regularly communicates with all members of the media, including Newsday,” Mr. Boyle wrote.
The fight on Long Island is one example of the growing tension between media outlets and public officials as the second Trump administration takes shape. Mr. Trump and his allies have long denigrated news outlets that they view as hostile to their agenda, and have sued and threatened them.
Mr. Blakeman, a Republican who has joined Mr. Trump at rallies and appeared frequently on Fox News, has drawn the ire of Democrats for antagonizing a roller derby team with transgender members and creating a force of armed volunteers to deploy in the case of civil unrest. The decision to drop Newsday in favor of The Post embodies a recent political shift in Nassau County, which has drifted to the right under Mr. Blakeman’s stewardship.
Founded in 1940 and based in Melville, N.Y., Newsday has long been a dominant news organ in Nassau County and beyond, once boasting bureaus in places such as Lebanon and Pakistan. It has won 19 Pulitzer Prizes for journalism that challenged political institutions, including investigations into illegal drugs originating in Turkey and political corruption involving local land deals.
When Newsday was founded, Long Island was a “bunch of small towns separated by trees,” according to Bob Keeler, a retired Newsday reporter who wrote a book about the paper. The newspaper, Mr. Keeler said, helped connect residents of Long Island to their communities and government.
“It was an important institution in giving Long Island an identity,” Mr. Keeler said.
But the reach of the outlet, now owned by Patrick Dolan, the son of the HBO founder Charles F. Dolan, is now largely restricted to Long Island. It has faced a difficult transition to online subscriptions, like most newspapers.
Today, Newsday employs around 100 reporters who cover the economy, politics, food and more. In an eight-month period last year, its total weekly print and digital readership in Nassau County was more than 400,000, according to the complaint.
Seth Koslow, a Democratic member of the Nassau County Legislature, said that he opposed making The Post the county’s official newspaper, because of Newsday’s longstanding ties to Long Island. Mr. Koslow, who is running against Mr. Blakeman in this year’s election, called the move “good for Bruce Blakeman and not for Nassau County.”
“Politicians don’t get to choose their watchdogs,” Mr. Koslow said in an interview.
Newsday claims that Mr. Blakeman retaliated against the paper for its coverage of his efforts to bar transgender athletes from participating in sports at county facilities. Starting in March 2024, the paper said, Mr. Blakeman’s administration ignored about 50 information requests and began removing its reporters from press mailing lists, leaving just a single reporter who was a registered Republican.
On Dec. 16, Mr. Blakeman announced at a news conference that The Post would be Nassau’s official newspaper after the Republican-controlled County Legislature voted for the move. The Post — which like Fox News is part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and based in Manhattan — has about half the Nassau County readership of Newsday, according to the complaint.
Most states require municipalities to pay one print publication to run notices on matters of public interest, including zoning changes, foreclosures and public hearings. As part of its suit, Newsday is seeking revenue it said it lost as a result of the change. It claimed in the complaint that Nassau County spent more than $200,000 on such notices in 2023 and 2024.
Mr. Blakeman has made no secret of his disdain for Newsday. In a December interview on a conservative New York radio show, Mr. Blakeman said The Post had been chosen not just because it offered more national and international coverage, but also because of Newsday’s news coverage and liberal editorials.
“Many of our constituents don’t agree with the philosophy of the editorial board of Newsday, which was also an important consideration,” Mr. Blakeman said on “Cats & Cosby,” adding that Newsday’s reporting had been “very, very spotty.”
A spokeswoman for The Post declined to comment. Newsday has filed a notice of claim against Nassau County, Mr. Blakeman and the Legislature, 30 days after which it can officially file suit.
Since Mr. Trump rose to power, he and his allies have routinely picked fights with traditional media outlets over their news coverage. He has repeatedly called outlets like MSNBC and CNN “the enemy of the people,” and he has sued ABC News, CBS and even the Des Moines Register after it published a poll before the 2024 election that found him trailing in Iowa.
Mr. Blakeman’s tactic of going after Newsday’s ability to post public notices replicates Mr. Trump’s approach on a local level. Local officials from New York to California have punished newspapers for critical coverage by removing their contracts to post public notices.
As print subscriptions have dried up, public notices have become an increasingly crucial source of revenue for small papers, according to Richard Karpel, executive director of the Public Notice Resource Center. That has given some local governments more leverage.
“The more important the revenue is, the choice of which paper they choose to publish it in becomes more potent,” Mr. Karpel said.
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