NEW YORK -- It seems to be happening more and more lately: Mayor Michael Bloomberg losing his cool at news conferences.

Most recently, it happened Monday, when a Newsday reporter made the apparent mistake of beginning his question with the following preface: "Mr. Mayor, you maintain you have a relationship with the Sean Bell demonstrators."

We never got to hear the end of the question because one thing the mayor did not maintain was his composure. Bloomberg quickly decided the question implied some sort of dishonesty on his part and cut off the Newsday reporter, telling him he had "some nerve."

Last week, at an outdoor news conference in Times Square with Sting and The Police, Bloomberg went off on a reporter who made the mistake of using a faulty microphone to ask a question.

The mayor's office sets up the sound at these events, so the fact that the mayor could not hear the question was obviously no fault of the reporter.

Bloomberg, sounding testy and exasperated snapped, "We're planting a million trees, sir, what's your problem? If you won't tell us what your question is we can't help you."

My observation is that Bloomberg has never particularly enjoyed the inherently adversarial relationship with the City Hall press corps and that his patience is dwindling with time. He's tired of reporters who he perceives as looking for the "gotcha" negative story.

The mayor's press secretary, Stu Loeser, said he disagrees with my premise that this seems to be happening more and more often. And he makes a valid point, though I'll spare you the examples of all the particular reporters who he notes have frustrated his boss over the years. (I am luckily not on the list.)

Loeser said: "I don't agree with the premise of your question, but like most New Yorkers, and most people, the mayor doesn't like being called a liar. If we need to go over the meaning of the word "maintain," I can. It's exclusively used to refer to an allegation that is either not backed up by facts or in contrast to facts, as in: The court has ruled seven times that Mr. Jones is a pedophile, but he maintains they are all cases of mistaken identity."

Loeser also noted that the mayor did not achieve his huge success by tolerating technical foul-ups, a reference to the broken microphone incident that Bloomberg ultimately blamed on his staff -- when I asked a question and it failed again.

Ironically, Bloomberg demands the press ask the tougher questions of the national candidates and hold their feet to the fire with follow up questions. Maybe he just wants us to spare him?