“I hope to keep this administration as responsible as the media kept the Trump administration,” said Bolling.
Trump showered his allies in the conservative media with VIP treatment, rewarding them with interviews and access, publishing his books and programs, and in some cases, seeking his advice on everything from immigration policy to military air strikes. But they are outside now – and looking to draw blood from the new administration.
This presents an initial set of challenges for the Biden team, which is trying to learn from the Obama years. At that time, it was Fox News that fired most of the spit balls at a newly elected Democratic president – best personified by Glenn Beck and his blackboard. But now, there are a number of media outlets looking to occupy this space, from the dominant right (Sinclair and the Daily Caller) to the conspiratorial fringe (OAN and Gateway Pundit). And that, even for experienced hands like press secretary Jen Psaki, presents new and embarrassing puzzles for a White House that promises to restore normal relations with a press that has become anything but normal.
White House officials promise a radical change in the way Trump and the White House interacted with the press. Biden’s team plans to establish clear criteria for qualifying for a so-called “difficult pass” to access the ground in consultation with WHCA, officials told POLITICO. If current media pass holders continue to meet the criteria determined in conjunction with the correspondent association, they will continue to have strict passes.
White House officials emphasized that they will not take steps to ban the pro-Trump voices from the White House. They do not anticipate, for example, the proactive revocation of hard passes by journalists who put them under Trump. And they seem interested in not following the same path the Obama White House did when it took steps to freeze Fox, but backed down amid resistance from other networks. But Biden’s advisers also promised not to allow the media to use instructions to spread unfounded conspiracies.
“We hope that reporters covering the White House will operate in good faith and tell the public the truth, and this White House will do the same. We are moving forward with this mutual understanding, ”said TJ Ducklo, deputy press secretary for the White House. “Organizations or individuals who traffic conspiracy theories, propaganda and lies to spread misinformation will not be tolerated and we will work with the WHCA to decide how to deal with these instances going forward.”
Coronavirus guidelines significantly reduced access to the instruction room, restricting crowded meetings in which the full range of networks on the right could participate. Currently, only 14 of the 49 chairs in the instruction room are occupied. The WHCA and the White House want to expand this, but have no immediate plans to do so while Covid is furious. Although the WHCA has moved in the past few days to bring the briefings to an end more, Trump-aligned hosts and right-wing reporters who did not enter the room last week argue that the current group of participants has softened Biden.
“It was a shame for the press,” said Sean Spicer, the host of “Spicer & Co” at Newsmax and former Trump press secretary at the White House.
As evidence of his claim, Spicer, who, like Bolling, sent paperwork to join the WHCA, pointed to the boardroom’s questions about Air Force One’s color scheme and Biden’s mood on Induction Day. Even so, despite all his complaints, Spicer praised Psaki’s performance, which several vehicles compared favorably with his first performances – now remembered for his insistence on the record size of Trump’s inaugural crowd.
“She did a very good job in her role and, to a certain extent, I’m a little jealous,” admitted Spicer.
White House officials are sensitive to the argument that the press is making things easier for Biden. They also emphasize that they are not concerned with facing pro-Trump hosts, including Spicer.
“Jen answered questions from Russian propaganda vehicles, literally, when she was a spokesman for the State Department,” countered a White House aide. “Former ‘Dancing with the Stars’ finalist Sean Spicer doesn’t scare her.”
For the White House, the most complicated challenge may be struggling to enter a closed right-wing ecosystem.
Tim Miller, a Trump critic and former Republican media agent, suggested that Biden’s team find some channels and reporters on “MAGA media” and involve them on the White House’s own terms. “Some of these guys are access merchants, others are just not that smart, and getting into the lions’ den and making a defense has value,” he said.
“The downside of this is that you are legitimizing some of those vehicles that acted horribly and they will obviously do their best to defame Biden the rest of the time,” said Miller. “But there are no easy answers and I think the compensation benefits Biden.”
Among the reporters Biden’s team seems interested in engaging is Fox News’ Peter Doocy, who conservative personalities and media executives labeled as the only highlight in his questions last week. On Thursday, Doocy asked Psaki why the Biden family was not masked at all times during an Inauguration Day photo shoot at Lincoln Memorial, as Biden had signed an order demanding masks on federal property and emphasizing the importance to model good behavior.
Psaki said the Bidens were celebrating a historic day and are taking several precautions, referring to Doocy as “Steve”, his father and co-host for “Fox and Friends”.
The younger Doocy’s approach was anticipated by the Biden White House team. During the campaign, his questions repeatedly focused on Biden’s adult son Hunter and the allegations about his foreign affairs and personal life. At a Biden transition event last month, Doocy investigated the then-president-elect whether he still believed the reports on Hunter’s emails and laptop were Russian misinformation.
Biden said yes and promised that his Department of Justice would act independently.
“God love you, man! You are a single horse pony, ”he added of Doocy’s interest in Hunter, fumbling with the“ one trick pony ”cliché.
Biden’s campaign, however, worked with Doocy during the campaign. Advisers characterized Fox News as a valuable component of the president’s messaging strategy. Leading members of the team, including Kate Bedingfield, who now runs the communications operation at the White House, appeared on Fox’s radio waves. As did Pete Buttigieg, a leading replacement.
Biden’s campaign placed large advertising purchases on Fox and also on its website. They did this with a focus on the audience that linked Fox to the news, not to primetime presenters like Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson, who they effectively considered Trump’s substitutes.
For Biden’s team, there was a belief that they could sell their conversation about bipartisanship at Fox – a belief that didn’t exist for vehicles like OAN and Newsmax, several consultants said.
“If you are leaving Fox News to watch these networks, you are indicating that Fox News is too moderate for you,” said a senior Biden consultant. “We think there were people who watched Fox News news programming and that there were voters who could support Biden.”
Now that Biden’s team is in the White House, it may be harder to ignore the other chains that are further to Fox’s right. Newsmax, the proudly conservative outlet owned by Trump’s friend Chris Ruddy, has a seat in the instruction room. and will appear in the rotation soon.
“We always follow the rules. We respect the president and appreciate being a member of the White House Correspondents’ Association, ”said Brian Peterson, Newsmax senior vice president, referring to White House correspondent Emerald Robinson. Peterson also noted that Newsmax had a seat in the instruction room during Obama’s years “and they were treated well”.
Then there is the issue of OAN, whose White House correspondent traveled to Ukraine with Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to film a series promoting unfounded conspiracy theories in order to defend Trump during his first impeachment.
Inside the instruction room, OAN’s Chanel Rion came to be seen as a lifeline for Trump and officials when they were subjected to difficult questions. At one point, she asked Trump, who referred to Covid-19 as the “Chinese virus” because of its origin, whether he considered it racist to call cuisine “Chinese food”.
Last spring, the correspondent association expelled OAN from the rotation after Rion twice defied the rules of social detachment. OAN continued to visit the White House as a guest of Trump officials. The correspondent association then withdrew its workspace at the White House. An OAN executive did not respond to requests for comment on his approach to covering President Biden.
In the past few days, the correspondent association has informed about 20 additional vehicles that they are being called upon to cover press briefings. The list includes Sinclair de Bolling, as well as Breitbart, the far-right publication that in recent months has focused extensively on alleged fraudulent voting and Trump’s legal campaign to annul the election.
Elizabeth Moore, an executive at the Breitbart News Network, said the company’s reporters are eager to cover the Biden White House “just as we do any other, accurately, comprehensively, with an eye on stories that resonate with our dozens of millions of readers and viewers who trust us for the facts. ”
WHCA representatives did not comment on pending applications, although others outside the organization said that it is not customary for anchors and hosts who do not regularly cover the White House in person to have full membership.
Spicer said he originally applied to get a better idea of the inner workings of the “other side” – “to see how the sausage is made”. He has since questioned the WHCA, which has limited instruction seats under Trump, for agreeing to the new coronavirus safety rules proposed by Biden’s aides that restrict the number of people in the place to 80 and inside the house to half that.
“WHCA accepted his idea of limiting access,” said Spicer.
Asked if he would consider running for a seat on the board, Spicer said he was not thinking about it now. But he did not rule it out.