Mamdani urged by Manhattan borough president to pull Newsmax from NYC taxi cab screens

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is being urged by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal to boot right-wing media outlet Newsmax from the Taxi TV monitors that appear in the backseats of thousands of yellow cabs.

Hoylman-Sigal claimed that Newsmax “is not a credible news source for New Yorkers,” in a January 21 letter to Mamdani and Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Midori Valdivia.

Newsmax streams national news programming content in taxis in a partnership with Curbed, one of the TLC’s authorized technology screen providers.

But New Yorkers deserve a better news source than Newsmax on Taxi TV, the borough president argued, questioning some of the comments on immigration from hosts on the conservative network.

He urged the mayor and TLC to use political muscle to pressure Curb to drop Newsmax, or suspend the city’s licensing deal with Curb.

“I urge you to summarily suspend the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission’s partnership with Curb… and demand that Curb cease its collaboration with Newsmax as a condition of licensure given the platform’s history of misinformation and disingenuous reporting,” Hoylman-Sigal said in the letter.

Critics slammed Hoylman-Sigal for promoting censorship, calling his demand an example of cancel culture run amok.

“This is cancel culture in the free market,” said Stefano Forte, president of the New York Republican Club.

“I know the socialists want to control everything. But this is ridiculous. I don’t think anyone is getting indoctrinated by right wing politics in the back of the cab.”

The Post reviewed a recent Newsmax “News Minute” presentation on Taxi TV by host Alex Kraemer.

The segment showed a straightforward presentation about congressional deliberations over a war powers resolution for Venezuela, the Trump administration’s crackdown of visas and a story about an ex-Giants football player who’d gone missing.

“Since the launch of our Newsmax partnership, no opinion or editorial content has aired on TaxiTV. All programming has consisted solely of standard news segments reviewed to ensure compliance with our content standards,” a Curb spokesperson said in a statement.

Curb also noted that it regularly airs public service announcements from the Mamdani administration and other public agencies, “reinforcing our role as a neutral distribution platform for important civic and safety-related information.”

The company provides content streamed on 15,000 screens across 65 US markets, including 9,000 in the Big Apple.

Newsmax had no immediate comment.

Mamdani’s office and the TLC had no immediate comment.