An astonishing new report suggests that the White House communications team tried to filter the questions for press secretary Jen Psaki before the daily briefings, as media watchdogs warn that Biden’s team will have to walk a fine line given the how reporters treated President Trump’s spokesperson.
Amber Athey, editor of Spectator USA, who used to be a White House correspondent for The Daily Caller, never experienced anything like what Biden’s communications team was accused of.
“The Trump administration certainly never asked me questions in advance and I suspect there would have been universal outrage from reporters if they had done so,” Athey told Fox News.
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press conference at the White House on Monday, January 25, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)
Reporters were so frustrated with the practice that they complained to colleagues.
“This is a totally normal procedure if you live in a banana republic, it is absolutely unprecedented in this country,” conservative strategist Chris Barron told Fox News.
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When contacted for comment, a White House spokesman provided Fox News with the same statement in the Daily Beast report.
“Our goal is to make the daily briefing as useful and informative as possible for reporters and the public. Part of the meeting for this purpose means interacting regularly with the reporters who will be in the briefing room to understand how the White House can be more useful for get the information they need. This two-way conversation is an important part of keeping the American people up to date on how the government is serving them, “said the White House spokesman.
Psaki, a former CNN analyst who is often praised by the mainstream media, needs to exercise caution if she is probing reporters for the wrong reasons, according to DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall.
“The White House press office needs to balance this issue carefully. It makes sense, on one level, for the press secretary to be prepared in advance to respond as best as possible to topics in the minds of reporters. advance may well seem to veteran reporters that press secretary Psaki is pre-screening questions or pre-preparing a version, “McCall told Fox News.
“Each press conference is a risky situation for the White House and Psaki should, in fact, want to be responsive and prepared for reporters’ questions. The key here, it seems, is whether this process is being used to prepare information or simply to prepare for them. “
McCall thinks it would be excusable if reporters’ questions were asked in advance “just as a way of getting an alert and collecting information in advance”, in order to provide responsive answers.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks to reporters at the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Thursday, January 21, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
“If, however, the process is designed to avoid difficult questions or prepare rhetorical coverage, then the risk factor is eliminated and the pressors appear to be staged,” said McCall. “The White House press should expect to be allowed to ask questions that have not been filtered out in advance. This is partly because reporters don’t always want to signal in advance which questions they want to ask and partly because the flow and reflux of any presser creates opportunities for improvised questions that would not have seemed obvious beforehand. “
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Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor believes that most White House reporters are taking it easy on Biden and his team, but knowing the questions in advance is another way for the government to benefit from a warm relationship with media.
“The left demands 100 percent loyalty from the press, not the 99 percent they already receive,” Gainor told Fox News.
“In this case, Jen Psaki needs all the help he can get,” continued Gainor. “It is obvious that she is in the secondary league, even in the softball game that the press is playing with Team Biden.”
In 2009, then CBS News correspondent at the White House Chip Reid and columnist Helen Thomas got into a heated confrontation with then press secretary Robert Gibbs when it was revealed that President Obama’s White House selected interrogation for an online city hall.
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“It looks very controlled,” said Reid at the time. “That sounds like a very controlled audience and a list of questions. Why do that? Why not open it to the public?”
Thomas added: “I am surprised at you who call for openness and transparency.”
Gainor feels that the Biden White House “tried to fix the game” faster than the last Democratic government.
“When the Obama administration did this in 2009, at least they waited until mid-year,” said Gainor, noting that he does not expect anyone to complain like Reid and Thomas did more than a decade ago.
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“In today’s cancellation culture, journalists don’t dare to be open in their criticism, so that’s why this story is all whispers,” said Gainor.
The White House Correspondents’ Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kristine Biddle of Fox News contributed to this report.