For President Biden, Thursday is question time.
The president will be questioned by the press for the first time since he took office in January. The session will generate heat and light and, hopefully, a lot of news – but we will recognize one thing right from the start. The average reporter is much more concerned with Biden’s responses and deviations than the average viewer or reader.
In the case of Biden, I was one of the first to ask when he would hold a press, but I recognize that my family members are much more concerned with stimulus checks than with presidential press conferences. I would venture to say that most Americans don’t even know about the pressor’s turmoil.
But: This is a column about the media. We are concerned about Biden’s availability. And we care about taking care! Printers are important symbols of transparency and accountability. They are also practical forums to answer questions. And the reporters’ notebooks are overflowing with questions from the president. So, here is a wide range of columns, comments and pieces to raise the curtain …
Biden’s “speak softly” strategy
“Limiting your exposure to the press and, by extension, the public is not simply a defensive move” by Biden WH “to avoid an embarrassing gaffe,” wrote Peter Nicholas for The Atlantic. “It’s a conscious calculation that people don’t need – or want – to hear the president every hour.”
This is an obvious contrast to President Trump, and an important contrast. Nicholas asked Bill Frischling, the founder of Factba.se, to solve the numbers and found that “last week, Biden had spoken about 116,000 words publicly and spent 12 hours in front of the cameras as president”, while at this same point in 2017, “Trump had spoken almost three times more words and appeared on camera almost three times more.”
On a related note, this description by Ezra Klein stayed with me throughout the month: “Speak softly and go through a big schedule.”
How is he preparing
Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins of CNN spoke with several sources who conveyed that Biden “has been preparing for days” and, in addition, he “recognizes the bright spotlight he is going to put together. Biden talked about his strategy with several members of his inner circle and even held an informal practice session earlier this week. “
The pressing, scheduled for 1:15 pm Eastern time, is big business in part because it will be “Biden’s longest interrogation period since he became president” and because the WH waited so long to do so, which spurred weeks of critical coverage of professionals -Other Trump. The WaPo team noted that the busy news cycle – from the border to Boulder – also means that the printer “has taken on a huge import …”
Views from the left
Many liberal activists are frustrated with Biden WH’s coverage and are becoming increasingly active. They join some Never Trump Republicans, like Jennifer Rubin, who
it hit WH’s press office when referring to the next pressman, saying “given your conduct in the instruction room, I expect the worst.”
Former Clinton WH press secretary Joe Lockhart wrote in an opinion piece on CNN.com that Thursday is also a “test for the media” because “Biden is not Trump”, meaning he is not a liar and congenital bully. “The rules that have evolved around Trump should not be applied to Biden,” argued Lockhart. “Some members of the White House press corps realized this. Others did not. The press conference will be a national event about how the press treats the new president. Media mistrust is very high in our country and the press is excessively aggressive or unpleasant. can do more damage to journalism than the president. “
Views from the right
“The delay in calling President Biden’s first solo press conference may have had the unintended consequence of raising the bar on his performance,” wrote Naomi Lim to the Washington Examiner. Up to that point, Fox News has been promoting this event for weeks. Former Fox presenter Bill O’Reilly, summing up the resentful view of the right,
tweeted that “the White House press wanted to harm Donald Trump”, but “tomorrow will be 180 degrees opposite”. And Trump adviser Jason Miller responded to this NY Post headline, “No date set yet for Biden to speak at the joint session of Congress,” for
saying “They need to make sure he gets through a simple press conference first.”
Cover notes and quotes
– Zachary B. Wolf of CNN and colleagues compiled 30 questions for Biden …
– The presser will be live everywhere you expect, from CNN to broadcast networks. Lester Holt will anchor coverage on NBC; Major Garrett at CBS; and David Muir at ABC.
– Fox News will also broadcast live, but I’m curious to see what other right-wing channels do and what kind of comment they surround the journalist …
– Calvin Woodward, from AP, made a revealing retrospective of the import of POTUS presses …
– Jack Shafer said that WH avoided holding a press because “the president knows that the public doesn’t care one way or the other …”
– Clinton WH’s press secretary, Mike McCurry, was the right place in this interview with Lloyd Grove of The Daily Beast: “The usefulness of the press conference is that it really reinforces better government …”
– WaPo media columnist Margaret Sullivan said that the press is a “vital form of accountability”, but given Trump’s misconduct, it should not be turned into a “performance exercise to equate two administrations, just to show how hard we are … “
