If you’re reading this, I have no doubt you know already that the media is biased in favor of the Democrats. Telling this would be no surprise to you. Democrats dismiss this idea—heck, Joe Biden actually complains about getting “tough” questions—but they know it’s true. They’ll never admit it publicly, though. But, a prominent White House reporter reveals that Democrats absolutely know this to be true and outright expect journalists to “be on their side.” Democrats also even feel “horrified” when journalists press them.
And it just gets worse from there.
“Democrats in general have a much thinner skin,” the reporter anonymously told journalist Julia Ioffe. “This is not unique to Trump but Republicans never expect a fair shake, so if you cover them fairly, you can have a good working relationship with them. Democrats de facto expect you to be on their side and are horrified when you hold them to account as you would any other administration. It goes back to the Obama years. [Obama staffers would be] like, ‘Don’t you realize that being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition?!’ And I would be like, ‘Yes, but I’m writing about why your website keeps crashing.’”
And then there’s the shameful way the media treats the Biden administration. It’s no secret that the media’s coverage of the Biden administration goes beyond “friendly,” especially compared to the outright hostility it exhibited towards Trump. For example, earlier this week, Jen Psaki led the singing of “Happy Birthday” to a White House reporter during a briefing.
Of course, the cozy relationship between the Biden administration and the media was expected. New York Magazine writer Olivia Nuzzi predicted that journalists wouldn’t criticize Biden out of fear of losing social status last year.
“It’s a return to how I assume things existed in this town,” Nuzzi said. “There’s something gross about that, though it’s a much lower-grade gross than what we were dealing with before … The Biden White House necessitates more operating, it requires a phoniness. They’re passive aggressive, whereas the Trump people were aggressive.”
But the Biden administration is also frustrating reporters covering the White House. “The truth is the Biden White House is very opaque,” says Susan Glasser of The New Yorker, citing pandemic restrictions that made it easy for Biden’s people to keep the media at a safe distance during the campaign and the early months of the administration.
“There’s a sense that Biden’s position is fragile and that he has to be protected,” another reporter said. “That any unkind gaze might knock him over—which plays into every right-wing stereotype.”
“I don’t know that there’s been a president who’s been so protected and wrapped in so many layers of wool to keep him away from anything remotely approaching an adversarial interview,” the reporter said. “Why expose him to any risk? He’s old, he’s lost a few steps. It’s worked for them so far.”
This isn’t normal. The media shouldn’t be treating administrations differently. It is in the people’s best interest that each administration, regardless of party, is scrutinized. A free press doesn’t worry about social status with the current administration. A free press doesn’t ask softball questions or accept a lack of transparency. In my opinion, Barack Obama pioneered this new gutless media approach to liberal administrations. Obama took advantage of his celebrity status to manipulate the media, which overwhelmingly gave him favorable coverage. Obama threatened journalists for negative coverage and even spied on them for daring to be anything less than adoring. Joe Biden has brought this kind of media treatment back, not only with lack of transparency but, if Tucker Carlson’s accusations are true, spying on the media.
Obama knew he would get away with his crimes. Joe Biden believes he can, too. But journalism isn’t real journalism if you’re covering for the administration rather than covering the administration. We don’t need more coverage of Joe Biden eating ice cream. We need the media to start doing its job, asking the questions that need to be asked, such as about Hunter Biden’s shady art exhibit, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, or the crisis at the border, amongst many other things. Heck, it would be nice if the media took allegations of election fraud in 2020 seriously… It’s the least they can do after spending 4+ years hyping the fake Russian collusion narrative.
