How Media Types Are Trying To Manufacture Controversy Where None Exists

By Susie Madrak — March 15, 2021

Boy, it is really infuriating to watch media types on Twitter try to equate every innocent move by President Joe Biden with his nefarious predecessor! Eric Boehlert's Press Run newsletter spells out the insane gyrations of the Beltway press to manufacture controversy in this administration:

Biden travels during the pandemic! Biden wears a Rolex! Biden hasn't given a press conference! Biden hasn't credited Trump for the vaccine! Biden hasn't "united" the nation! The breathless exercise is already tedious. And it's only March.

In a way this is the Beltway press returning to "normalcy" after Trump's four years of deliberate chaos. And normalcy for the D.C. media is pelting Democrats with gotcha stories about optics and how something the president has done doesn't look right, as determined by journalists. Not that the president has done anything wrong. Just that it doesn't feel right, and that now that gets treated as Important News, just months after a president who ran the White House as a criminal enterprise and tried to demolish free and fair elections in America left office.

Under that Republican president, the daily optics were routinely so horrendous as he tweeted out racist taunts, bullied adversaries, and buddied up to foreign dictators. Faced with an openly corrupt president who didn't even try to hide his misdeeds, the media's optics squad went into hiding and stopped handing out tickets altogether.

Now they're back, as the Beltway press goes searching for infractions, while journalists obliterate all sense of proportion. This double standard has now become commonplace. As a rule, there were no brazen corruption or bouts of lawbreaking when recent Democratic presidents were in office, or running for president. So the press had to lean into optics in order to create drama and allegations of wrongdoing.

Go read the rest, it's superb. Boehlert is one of the best media critics around.

In the meantime, this is playing out on Twitter, which is the only place where journalists are relatively accountable to the public:

“I just got $1400 in my account! My unemployment was extended. I received rent relief for the back pay I owe my landlord. I have an appointment to get the vaccine next week!”

“......But did you hear Biden traveled three times to Delaware?”

— chris evans (@chris_notcapn) March 14, 2021

If we're going to argue that Biden should hold press conferences so that the White House Press Corps can "hold his administration accountable," part of that discussion must be how shitty the WHCA has been lately at holding administrations accountable.

— Frances Langum 🧶 please reinstate @mr_electrico (@bluegal) March 14, 2021

**Husband & wife sit down at the kitchen table**

H: "So we just got $2,800."

W: "And we got a vaccine faster than expected."

H: "Right, and our kids' school just got money to reopen faster."

W: "But I can't shake the feeling that Biden isn't holding enough press conferences."

— Zac Petkanas (@Zac_Petkanas) March 14, 2021

It seems reporters are out of practice doing their jobs, which is informing the public about the goings-on of their government. It is not supposed to be a presidential reality show, although that is clearly the easier job for the press.
Good points👇👇👇 https://t.co/X3f89RaFPI

— GHowell (@Gooddoghowell) March 14, 2021

This is a red-herring. The issue is not how many shows administrations put on for reporters, it is how transparent they are. Trump's press conferences were festivals of lies, disinformation engines, beyond worthless and actually damaging. Biden's team has been open and truthful. https://t.co/bmHiDXjEQD

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) March 14, 2021

At SOME point we the public pray the self important, blowhard members of the media will get the clue that WE DONT GIVE A RIP about this BS ‘press conference’ talking point—no matter HOW many times they go on about it. It just makes ‘em all look more ridiculous & petty than usual.

— Callie Capshaw (@CapshawCallie) March 14, 2021

I’m honestly still kinda stunned NYT, along w/ WP, ABC News, tried to do this after 500,000 died on Trump’s watch; https://t.co/27OCRS16cH

— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) March 13, 2021

President Joe Biden has spent three of the eight weekends since his inauguration in his home state of Delaware. The White House defends those visits at a time when the administration is urging the public to avoid unnecessary travel. https://t.co/nCD9ORPlun

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 13, 2021

Again: The vast majority of the media do not know how to cover government. They cover politics. They specialize is manufacturing perception and lean heavily on optics.

What if - and hear me out - it’s the job of journalists to want to ask questions of the top elected official in the land not dependent on how many hours of TV he or she watches or who’s working in the press office? https://t.co/9NJfJp2EkW

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 14, 2021

What if, and hear me out, we accept that the Executive is made up of dozens of department heads and the symbolism of a press conference with the titular head instead of those department heads is actually overblown and outdated theatrics not designed to impart actual information.

— Da’ Chris Smitty🐝🍷 (@oddinsights_tcs) March 14, 2021

And, as I pointed out:

Personally, I talked to politicians after I got done investigating and had an airtight story, so they kind of had to talk to me. I never started a story with a press conference! P.S. We all remember the little party the White House press held for lyin' Sarah when she left.

— Suburban Guerrilla Ω (@SusieMadrak) March 15, 2021

This is true, by the way. How often does a scoop come out of a reporter asking a question at a press conference? It's performance!

But Maggie Haberman will ignore the 300+ responses to her tweet, telling herself instead that she and her fellow journalists are noble creatures, misunderstood by the craven mob. Well, some of them are (I don't recall ever seeing the Washington Post's David Farenthold in the middle of these self-pitying whine fests, probably because HE'S WORKING ON A STORY), but these access journos don't understand that 18 months of actually covering Trump's perfidy doesn't make up for years of bothsides-erism and making media mountains out of molehills.