If you’re a reporter with a tough question for the White House press secretary, Joe Biden’s team wouldn’t mind knowing in advance.
According to three knowledgeable sources, in addition to written communications reviewed by The Daily Beast, the new president’s communications team has already polled reporters to see what questions they plan to ask the new White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, when requested during briefings.
The requests have raised concerns among the White House press, whose members, like many reporters, are sensitive to the perception that they are coordinating with political communications teams.
A reporter raised the issue during an informal call from the White House Correspondents’ Association last Friday. According to several sources, the leaders at the meeting advised written press reporters to back off against requests from the White House press team to inquire about the questions in advance, or simply not to answer questions from the Biden team.
“While it is a relief to see briefings return, especially with a commitment to factual information, the press cannot really do its job in the briefing room if the White House is choosing and choosing the questions they want,” said a House correspondent. White. “This is not really a free press.”
“It pissed off enough reporters that people would signal to the [WHCA] for them to deal with, ”said another experienced source.
The WHCA Zoom call was not recorded, and the Daily Beast team attended the lecture. These employees had no contribution to this story. The reporter who wrote this story was not subject to the terms of the call agreement. All information in this article was collected independently and without the knowledge of your colleagues.
Since Biden took office two weeks ago, the White House press team has visibly tried to draw contrasts with Trump’s press team, who had a notoriously antagonistic relationship with reporters and ended up completely dismissing the traditional daily briefing.
During her first impression, Psaki promised to restore regular briefings, including those with senior health officials, adding that she had “a deep respect for the role of a free and independent press” and that they shared “a common goal, which is to share accurate information with the American people. ”
Biden’s press team did not deny that officials asked questions from reporters. But the White House argued that it tried to promote a better relationship with the press than the previous government and tried to contact reporters directly to avoid looking like it was dodging questions during briefings.
“Our goal is to make the daily briefing as useful and informative as possible for reporters and the public,” said a White House spokesman. “Part of achieving that goal means engaging regularly with reporters who will be in the briefing room to understand how the White House can be more useful in getting 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. “
This practice is not entirely new in previous federal administrations, departments or agencies. For example, former President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was known to have asked certain media outlets about their questions prior to some major Trump press conferences or events, according to two people with direct knowledge of the subject. Communications teams during the Bush and Obama years would ask reporters in advance the essence of the questions if they wanted to interview cabinet secretaries.
In previous administrations, many White House reporters met informally in the morning to talk to press secretaries. During these interactions, the White House communication team could get an idea of the topics reporters were interested in that day and would come prepared for questions during late afternoon televised briefings.
Eric Schultz, a former Obama White House deputy press secretary, said the new communications team was restoring the briefing process to normal. Finding out what reporters are focusing on, he said, was standard procedure in most pre-Trump White Houses in order to reduce the number of questions that go unanswered during televised briefings.
“This is a classic communication job. The briefing is meaningless if the press secretary has to ask questions repeatedly, instead of coming equipped to discuss what journalists are reporting, ”he said. “In a non-greedy environment, this would happen in casual conversations throughout the day in the lower and upper press. One of the few advantages for reporters hovering over your desk all day, is that you have a very quick sense of what they’re working on. ”
Despite concerns from some reporters over the doubts of the Biden team, Psaki’s tenure so far has received positive reviews from many media outlets. The Washington Post told readers to prepare for a “reality-based” press conference, which Forbes has already described as “mandatory TV”. The New York Times noted that she extended an “olive branch” to reporters during her first briefing, which Vox described as a “breath of fresh air”.
–With additional reporting Asawin Suebsaeng.