Eric Boehlert: Does Biden owe the media a press conference?

[babylonsister]

https://pressrun.media/p/does-biden-owe-the-media-a-press

Does Biden owe the media a press conference?
Lots of hand-wringing
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago


snip//

There are no current scandals Biden is trying avoid. If anything, his press conference might end up resembling a victory lap as he rightly takes credit for the U.S.'s runaway vaccination rate, and the passage of a Covid relief bill which will help millions of families and businesses, as well as school districts across the country.

It seems more that the press wants Biden to appear in the specific forum of a solo news conference, which shines a spotlight on the White House press corps. Biden has already participated in a town hall event for CNN, answering voters' questions for more than an hour. But journalists don't think town halls really count, because they don't feature journalists. So there's a self-serving angle to the media's clamoring about a press conference, which journalists glorify as being the pinnacle of presidential communications.

“Press conferences are critical to informing the American people and holding an administration accountable to the public,” said Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

The Washington Post in its editorial insisted that press conferences are where "reporters can ask follow-up questions" and "the president’s thoughts on a wide range of issues can be mined." In four years of Trump press conferences, do you recall pointed, aggressive follow-up questions from reporters that helped mine Trump's deeper thoughts? I certainly don't. (I do recall that one press conference held at Trump's Bedminster, N.J., country club where local members were invited to boo reporters and cheer Trump's references to “fake news.”) It's odd that the media let Trump lie his way through solo press events and now are demanding Biden hold one because that's where presidents are held accountable by the media.

Meanwhile, it's hard to miss how CNN for instance is pressing Biden to hold a formal Q&A in the name of access. Yet CNN pulled the plug on Biden White House daily press briefings just four weeks into the Democrat's term. This, after CNN feasted on Trump White House press briefings, airing them live and in their entirety, for four years. CNN clearly operated under different rules for Trump, and now it demands that Biden adhere to the press conference rules that CNN prefers.

Biden will certainly hold a press conference soon and it will likely generate very little news, let alone blockbuster revelations. It also won’t feature insults and concocted fabrications like his predecessor’s did. The press should relax a bit on this issue, Biden has been quite busy to date.

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. NO

Period. End of sentence.

[soothsayer]

6. +1

[samnsara]

2. when he signs the bill he will do one then...

..and yes it will be a blockbuster presser imho..

[spooky3]

3. The double standards are ridiculous. Nt

[gratuitous]

4. The press corps want a full-blown press conference?

I didn't hear a peep out of those folks when the former guy went years without a press conference, and even stopped the daily pressers for the entire last year of his term. You want to grandstand and ask a snarky question? Jen Psaki's in the House. Every day. She doesn't suffer the fools, but she'll give you the straight scoop, instead of pretending that it was the. Largest. Inauguration. Crowd. Ever.

[kacekwl]

5. No. Let the babies cry all they want

Gives them something to do.

[2naSalit]

7. From what I can tell...

He's been too f'ing BUSY to hold one in that format. There's a four year long string of catastrophucks to clean up after the orange gang ravaged our government, it's been 41 days for crissake!

The WH press corps should cool their jets and maybe figure out how to find out stuff the old fashioned way instead of relying on an attention-seeking blowhard who easily provided them with days of material with every appearance.

[kentuck]

8. Amen to that!

A little hypocrisy from the press?

[FlyingPiggy]

9. Absolutely NOT.

[Botany]

10. No

What a bunch of crap. Jen Psaki does daily pressers vs Trump's one press secretary who never did
one and Joe Biden is busy too. He can do a presser when he feels like it.

[NewHendoLib]

11. I guess the press was Stockholm Syndromed by the tr***ers. They are craving abuse???

My answer - NOPE. Screw them.

[FSogol]

12. C'mon the press is dying to ask about Trumpy, Pepe le Pew, Dr Suess, Meghan Markle, Major, etc

[JI7]

13. I don't mind them wanting a press conference . But it's the way they treated Trump

and now they are acting like Biden is doing something wrong that is really Gross.

The media needs to admit they failed .

[msfiddlestix]

14. Excellent. I hadn't factored in the media's agenda to shine light on themselves

before this read. that makes so much sense. I used to think their agenda was about big corporate's agenda almost exclusively.

But this piece shines a spotlight on the media's own narcissism (my term) to kind of put simply, and I think that might be as important if not more in one sense, than media doing Big Corps their bidding.

Anyway, I approve of this message, and I think the themes should be highlighted in our conversations and brought more notice/attention to the extent of forcing cable execs and press corps to deal and respond accordingly.

[PatSeg]

15. "So there's a self-serving angle to the media's

clamoring about a press conference, which journalists glorify as being the pinnacle of presidential communications."

Excellent point. The President and his staff are keeping the public very well informed about the administration's activities and Biden has been in front of the camera on a regular basis, but the journalists themselves are not getting enough media exposure. Sounds like creating controversy and a story where none exists. I don't think their faux outrage is going to work on this president.