This is truly frightening.
A recent news report details that officials in the Biden administration have been working behind the scenes, “begging” news outlets to deliver “favorable” coverage of President Biden.
According to a New York Post article on CNN’s Reliable Sources, the administration was “not happy” with recent reports detailing supply-chain issues, soaring inflation, and countless other woes and had “been working behind the scenes” to reshape coverage in favor of Biden.
The newsletter, written by CNN reporter Oliver Darcy also mentioned that senior White House officials had been briefing newsrooms over the past week. Meetings were led by David Kamin and Bharat Ramamurti – National Economic Council deputy directors – in addition to ports envoy John Parcari.
Darcy also wrote in the report that the conversations reporters, anchors, and producers had with officials had been “productive.”
The first signs that the Biden administration’s efforts to gain positive media attention could be working are emerging.
On December 3rd, The Washington Post published an op-ed penned by Dana Milbank, with the headline, “The media treats Biden as badly as — or worse than — Trump. Here’s proof.”
In the piece, Milbank mentions data that displays that Biden’s press coverage for the previous four months was as bad as – and in some instances worse than – Trump’s coverage for the same period in 2020.
In his op-ed, Milbank says that his analysis confirmed his fear that his colleagues in the media were “serving as accessories to the murder of democracy.”
This is not the first time that White House officials have been accused of attempting to influence the media.
Back in February, after only a few days on the job, the Daily Beast reported that Jen Psaki – White House Press Secretary – was soliciting questions from journalists in advance. She wanted to know what they planned to ask during the daily briefing.
The Daily Beast’s piece confirmed this with three sources. All of which revealed that Biden’s staff had been probing reporters to disclose the questions they planned to ask “new White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki when called upon during briefings,”
Discussing these revelations, one White House correspondent said the press would be unable to do their job in the briefing room if the White House was selecting “the questions they want.” The correspondent went on to say, “that’s not really a free press at all.”
After this came to light, conservatives quickly condemned Psaki’s actions.
At the time, Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor stated the following to Fox News, “the left demands 100 percent loyalty from the press, not the 99 percent they already get.” He then elaborated, saying that “cancel culture” hindered journalists from being open about their criticism, which confined the story to whispers.
