Crap "journalism" as practiced by the utterly compromised White House press corps
Unbelievable. They now call for "decorum" after they launch countless fierce and ugly attacks against Trump's press secretaries.
This is rich beyond description. Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, gives a tongue lashing to a correspondent who, from the back of the room, complains that she hasn’t allowed him ask a question for seven months.
Other members of the White House press corps jumped in, telling Simon Ateba, a correspondent for Today News Africa, with their own scolding. Reuters reporter Jeff Mason and Salon columnist Brian Karem turned on Ateba to openly instruct him to behave himself. One reporter apologized to Americans; imagine, demanding that a public office answer a question!! Jean-Pierre warned she would shut down press briefings if Ateba didn’t shape up. (Read her threatening note to the press corps at the bottom of this post.)
Apparently afflicted by a terminal case of amnesia, Ateba’s lecturers failed to mention how the press corps had jumped all over Donald Trump’s press secretaries, including Sean Spicer, Sarah Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany.
For example, does the name Jim Acosta ring a bell? The belligerent Acosta, a CNN correspondent, made a career out of harassing, shouting at and accusing Trump’s spokesmen and the president himself of, among other things, taking questions from “friendly reporters.” As Acosta tweeted: “Isn’t it a ‘fake news conference’ to take a question from a reporter who is essentially an ally of the White House?” High irony, that, especially when nearly the entire room now is an ally of Biden’s White House.
The main charge against Ateba, as best I can make out, is that he was rude and accusatory. I don’t blame him. As a longtime journalist who has covered lots of news conferences, I’d be pissed too if I couldn’t get a question in at a daily news briefing for seven months.
I’d be angrier at my colleagues for failing to come to my defense, and worse, for launching their own accusations against me. Believe me, plenty of reporters have been nasty at press conferences, but I’ve never seen other reporters jump all over him for doing it.
Reminds me of colleagues of former Tribune columnist John Kass demanding that the newspaper take reprisals against him for writing the truth about Democratic money-bags George Soros.
This is journalism that I don’t recognize. It makes me sick.
Schoolmarm Jean Pierre’s I’m-putting-my-foot-down memo to the WH press corps:
As you all know, there was an extreme breakdown of decorum in today’s Daily Briefing. What happened today created a hostile work environment for everyone in that room. This isn’t my first note to the press corps imploring everyone to be respectful of each other and to conduct ourselves in a professional manner during these televised briefings. Unfortunately, this is an issue that keeps recurring despite our best efforts to encourage basic decorum. You have told us that you are deeply frustrated with the outbursts and we share that frustration.