On his very first day at the White House, Joe Biden laid down the rules about the work environment he wanted.
"If you are ever
working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, or talk
down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-PN1WWVo4g
Almost two years
later, those promises have melted into thin air.
Biden frequently
attacks his political opponents and their followers merely for having a
differing worldview.
When on the rare
occasion the press poses questions that are deemed to be tough, they face the
wrath of Biden and his spokespersons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qfsr7HZ-io
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl77nDxM47o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHm7pu7Unu0
The latest casualty
in Biden’s war on the adversarial press is a journalist named Simon Ateba, who
works for Today News Africa, a news organization focusing on US-Africa ties.
During last
Thursday’s press briefings, Ateba asked Jean-Pierre why she wasn’t taking
questions from him about Biden's upcoming three-day summit with 49
African leaders.
This incurred
Jean-Pierre’s displeasure, and she summarily rejected Ateba’s premise that she
wasn’t taking his questions. She then pretended to attempt to answer but in
seconds moved on to the next reporter claiming that Ateba had shut her
down.
Finally, she stormed
out of the room, implicitly blaming Ateba for causing such chaos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmusVtw2Px4
Ateba told Tucker
Carlson that he felt discriminated against.
He has good reason to
feel that.
Last month, Ateba
clashed with Jean-Pierre after she brushed off another reporter's question
about the origins of COVID during Dr. Anthony Fauci's final briefing.
'She has a valid
question about the origin of COVID,' said Ateba. 'Dr. Fauci is the best person
to answer!'
But Ateba’s requests
fell on deaf ears.
Part of this
discrimination is owing to the fact that Ateba belongs to a small new
organization.
The White House press
briefing room has a hierarchy that dictates the seating arrangements.
Members of the press
who belong to major media outlets have assigned seats in the front rows.
The likes of Ateba who
represent smaller news outlets are given random seats in the back rows.
Journalists in the
front rows usually are allowed questions every day.
But the backbenchers
are often ignored especially those such as Ateba who have developed a
reputation for asking tough questions.
The other component
of the discrimination was deemed to be racial and xenophobic by Ateba.
Ateba revealed to
Tucker that African reporters are generally not invited to ask questions by both
Jean-Pierre and her predecessor Jen Psaki. Ateba also said that he has
been attempting to get a question for the past three months.
Ateba told Tucker
that his notable Cameroonian accent was perhaps why he was discriminated
against.
Ateba expressed shock
that Jean-Pierre despite being a black immigrant like him had no empathy for
his situation. Jean-Pierre was born in France and moved to the US as a
young child while Ateba was born in Cameron prior to relocating to the US.
In the past, Ateba
also asked tough questions of Jen Psaki and was usually ignored.
In May, at Psaki's
final briefing, he repeatedly asked 'will you take a question from the back of
the room?'.
In February, Ateba asked Psaki about her move to MSNBC after leaving her White House post, but he was ignored. Back then Psaki hadn’t officially announced her move to MSNBC.
Even White House Director of Strategic Communications for the National Security Council, John Kirby, talked down to Ateba ordering him to be more respectful and moving on to another reporter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPmnDDhLmUc
The biggest stand-off between Ateba and Psaki occurred last December when the omicron COVID-19 variant was discovered by South African scientists. The Biden administration reacted by imposing a travel ban on eight southern African countries. That ban was significant because 57 countries had reported omicron cases, yet only the African nations were penalized.
Simon Ateba
challenged Psaki about the irrational travel ban and even suggested that the
ban was racist..
A displeased Psaki
shut him down and attempted to move to another correspondent in the room for a
question. But Ateba persisted in trying to extract a satisfactory answer
and even questioned Dr. Fauci who was also in the room. He was disruptive, but
he had no other option since he was among the few African reporters in the
room. But no answers were given.
A frustrated Ateba
went on Tucker Carlson’s shows to narrate his ordeal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKBKAZ9qWuU
This was obviously too much for Biden's White House to
tolerate.
First, Ateba dared to
challenge Psaki and his holiness, Dr. Fauci, then he appeared on TV alongside
Tucker Carlson.
Ateba faced reprisals.
Psaki refused to take questions from Ateba despite him raising his
hand. Perhaps she passed the secret blacklist to Jean-Pierre who
dutifully followed it.
So where did Ateba
err?
In an era of
perpetually obsequious news media, Ateba is doing his duty by asking obvious
hard questions and is pressing the powerful until satisfactory answers are
given. This is seen by the White House as an act of rebellion, who are
accustomed to slobbering.
The fact that Ateba
felt discriminated against should have been taken seriously by both the White
House and the press.
The White House should invite him for a meeting to find a
resolution.
The White House press
corps should have refused to participate in future press briefings until
Ateba’s concerns are addressed.
Since the Democrats
claim to believe in diversity and inclusiveness, the hierarchical seating
arrangement should be abandoned in favor of a flexible rotating seating
arrangement. This will enable every press member, irrespective of the size of
their new organization, to be in the first rows. Perhaps members of the press
who are mostly Democrats could initiate this change.
The self-appointed
guardians of racial minorities such as Joy Reid, Al Sharpton, etc. should have
made a lot of noise that a black man felt discriminated against merely doing
his job.
But nothing of
the kind happened or will ever happen, because the Democrats and the media
are part of the same echo chamber. This is a totalitarian cult that respects
only those who follow orders. Only submissive fawning is allowed and dissenters
are scoffed and scorned at.
If the dissenter
happens to be a person of color, the treatment is considerably harsher. We just
have to recall the treatment meted out to Black Republicans such as Hershel
Walker, Larry Elder, Candace Owens, Herman Cain, etc.
Since the press
refuses to report on this most of the country will remain unaware of this
instance of bigotry from Biden's White House. Obviously, if an identical event
had happened in Trump's White House it would have been covered for weeks, and
Ateba would have been a national hero and would have been interviewed by every
major news outlet.
This is a frontal
assault on the freedom of the press, the fact that it has racial and xenophobia
makes it much worse.
It is ironic that
this is occurring at the heart of one of the world’s largest
democracies i.e. the White House press room in Washington.
Also appears on American Thinker
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