The following are key extracts from
the letter :
“The current method of allowing a limited number of reporters into
these events is not only restrictive and antithetical to the concept of a free
press but it has been done without any transparent process into how reporters
are selected to cover these events.
The continued inability of the White House to be candid and
transparent about the selection process for reporters attending his remarks undermines President Biden’s credibility when he says he
is a defender of the First Amendment.
We appreciate that COVID-19
social distancing guidance played a role at first, but in the year and a half
that Joe Biden has been president, and since such guidelines have been eased, we’ve
never gotten an explanation as to why the areas that have traditionally been
opened to all press remain restricted.
The incongruity of these restrictions underscores the belief by
many reporters that the administration seeks to limit access to the president
by anyone outside of the pool, or anyone who might ask a question the
administration doesn’t want asked.
Any notion that space is ‘limited’ is not supported by the fact
that every president before Biden (including Trump) allowed access to the very
same spaces without making us fill out a request form prior to admittance.
Thank you for your attention to these ahistorical problems. We ask
you to see to it that the protocols are changed back to the access norms to
which we are accustomed.”
The letter was drafted by veteran journalist Brian Karem, the
second signature was from CBS News Radio’s Steven Portnoy, president of the
White House Correspondents’ Association.
Other notable signers are CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, CBS’s Ed O’Keefe,
veteran White House reporter Sam Donaldson, Newsmax’s James Rosen, and April
Ryan.
The ‘selection process’ mentioned in the
letter became apparent in August 2021, the last time Biden held a solo presser.
The exchange was held in the 3,000-square-foot White House East Room, yet Biden aides permitted only specific reporters
to attend citing “spacing constraints”.
Individual reporters claim to have received an array of
conflicting explanations about the selection criteria. White House press
secretary Jean-Pierre claimed ignorance about the selection criteria during a
briefing in June so
did her predecessor Jen Psaki in October 2021.
Since they are all struggling, the obvious deserves to be stated -
only those pliable reporters are allowed who are either willing to share questions in
advance or perhaps ask questions that are written by the White House staff.
Calling it a ‘selection process’ is a euphemism, what the Biden
administration is doing is the blacklisting outlets and reporters who intend
to challenge Biden for his myriad unmitigated catastrophes.
We have seen Biden personally lose his temper when challenged by
reporters.
Its been almost one and a half years since Biden was inaugurated and
he has had fewer solo pressers or TV interviews than any other previous
President.
Biden’s last ‘serious’ TV interview was with
Lester Holt of NBC News back on 10 February. The only other TV
interview was with ‘comedian’ Jimmy Kimmel. Both were favorable forums where no uncomfortable questions were posed.
The White House Transition Project, a non-partisan group that chronicles presidential communications noted that from his inauguration on 20 January 2021 up to 29 April 2022, Biden gave only 23 interviews. Most of the interviews were in print, which means the words were probably someone else's.
By contrast Donald Trump gave 95 interviews during the same period in his Presidency. Over their equivalent periods, Obama gave 187 interviews, George W Bush gave 60, Bill Clinton gave 64, George HW Bush gave 70 and Reagan gave 78.
Biden has also held fewer solo press conferences than other recent
presidents.
Beyond formal pressers, Biden has had almost no free interactions
with the press. Where Biden does have unscripted media interactions, he often
commits major gaffes that the White House is compelled to walk back from.
As expected the mainstream media has not covered the letter, if such
a letter was sent during the Trump administration, it would have been covered as
if it was a global crisis.
Back in 2017 when Trump was inaugurated, Tom Hanks gifted an
espresso machine to the White House Press Corp urging the press to “"Keep
up the good fight for the truth, justice, and the American way".
Expect no words of support from Hanks this time, Hanks narrated a
documentary that celebrated Biden's first anniversary in office.
It once again proves the opposition to Trump was never driven by principles,
it was pure partisan hatred.
It has to be remembered that the mainstream media including the
White House Press Corp function as willing propagandists for Democrats. In
fact, the Democrats and the media should not be thought of as disparate entities,
the media is like a department within the Democrat party.
There is no difference between the utterances of Democrat
operatives and media personnel. They often use identical phraseology for any
given situation. Buzzwords such as ‘insurrection’ or ‘collusion’ didn’t become
popular by chance. An adept Democrat wordsmith coined these terms and which the
media popularized them by obediently repeating them.
If any such letter was addressed to President Trump it probably
would have contained expletives and the tone would have been that of contempt
and defiance. The insolence would have been justified by everybody else because it was for
the ‘greater good’.
But with the Biden administration, despite their humiliation, the
press doesn’t seem angry or affronted. The tone of the letter, especially the
beginning, is that of supplicant well-wishers begging for access not
because it is essential for Democracy but because it undermines Biden’s
credibility as “a defender of the First Amendment.”
Yet the question remains why now and why so openly?
The first reason is Biden has presided over so
many unmitigated disasters that are impossible to disguise. They have to be
seen asking tough questions to retain some credibility in the future.
The second reason is there seems to be a mutiny against
Biden brewing among the Democrats.
Democrat bastions such as The
New York Times, Vanity
Fair the
Washington Post, and The
Atlantic are covering rapidly eroding that trust in Biden among the
Democrats and urging him not to seek reelection.
David Axelrod, the chief election strategist for Obama,
expressed doubts about Biden’s abilities owing to his age. AOC refused to
endorse Biden for 2024. Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger called
out Biden for being
a disruptive force and declined to take Biden's help on the
campaign trail. Another Democrat Representative Ro Khanna took
aim at Biden over inflation. Even loyalists such as Bill Maher are conceding
that Biden is a spent force.
The letter by the White House Press Corp is
perhaps another instance of the Democrats signaling to Biden via a proxy that his time is up and that these attacks could transform into unrelenting blandishments if he announces he is not running in 2024.
Also appears on American Thinker
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