Uptown Voices editor Octavio Blanco denies being paid to cover campaigns

Good morning.

My name is Octavio Blanco.

I'm the executive editor of Uptown Voices.

We're a hyperlocal digital news and current events platform based in Washington Heights, Manhattan.

We cover Inwood, Washington Heights, Harlem, and the South Bronx.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify today.

It's important for me to be here to speak about my work and to dispel accusations in the media that we've been paid to cover aspects of Mamdani's or Chevalier's campaigns.

I'm also not on any signal chat with the Mamdani administration.

My communications with the administration is via email and phone conversations, sometimes SMS text, as I do with any other source.

As a digital impact leader in my community, it's very important for me and my publication, Uptown Voices, to retain the tremendous amount of trust that our audience has given us in the 16 months that we've been working.

Trust is our most valuable commodity, and we would never want to threaten that.

Plus, we live in the community and are accountable every day to our neighbors.

That's why during the District 13 congressional race, Uptown Voices made it a point to invite all three candidates to appear on our podcast.

All the candidates accepted, and each of them appeared twice on our show for one hour each time.

No one paid us to appear on the program.

In fact, in one instance, Adriano Espaillat insisted that we rent a studio to avoid any possible technical difficulties, which we did and paid for out of our own pocket.

despite having very limited resources.

In another instance, the Espayat campaign did offer us a $500 payment to attend a photo op in the community, which we rejected.

I'm proud to say that Uptown Voices punches way above its weight.

We are an accredited news organization with the city.

We often attend press conferences and ask sharp questions to the mayor about his policies and plans.

We sit next to our more established national and international and local counterparts, and we ask questions that impact our community.

We may be hyper-local, but the issues we face uptown are similar to those faced by people all across the city, country, and dare I say, across the globe as well.

I have more to say, but I can't take any questions because I have an interview to go to.

So I will leave that.

I'll leave my comments as those.

Thank you very much.

Do you have a press pass or you do not press pass?

I do.

I do have a press pass.

That's great.

All right.

Thank you.

Go ahead, sir.

Thank you very much.