Lickspittles in the White House press corps prop up Joe Biden

PBS White House reporter Yamiche Alcindo gave new meaning to “obsequious” during her questioning of President Joe Biden during the first press conference of his tenure on Thursday.

The press conference was long anticipated. Would the press would treat Biden with the same hostility that characterized their frequent interrogations of former President Donald Trump?

With some exceptions, a number of the 30 reporters present displayed a dismaying streak of deferential brown-nosing–no surprise there–confirming the widely-shared public perception that the media is singing the progressive/liberal/Democratic libretto.

But Alcindor engaged in the kind of ass-kissing that even some in the media thought went beyond the pale. She asked Biden:

You’ve said over and over again that immigrants shouldn’t come to this country right now … That message is not being received. Instead, the perception of you that got you elected as a moral, decent man is the reason a lot of immigrants are coming to this country and are trusting you with unaccompanied minors.

How do you resolve that tension and how are you choosing which families can stay and which ones can go … and is there a timeline for when we won’t be seeing these overcrowded facilities run by CBP when it comes to unaccompanied minors? [Emphasis added.}

Not just a slow pitch. The question sat there motionless, like a tee-ball waiting there for a six-year-old to knock it out of the park.

Mind you, she is the face of the tax-supported Public Broadcasting System’s acclaimed Newshour. She has her own fawning pack, like this sophomoric and kissy-face article, “Bringing the Hard Truth to America” in Rolling Stone. That today’s journalists think their job is to bless America with their “truth” is exactly the problem with the one-proud profession today.

Arguably, the most gnawing of omissions was the failure to ask a single question about the coronavirus pandemic. For example, does he accept the CDC’s most recent switch in “the science,” saying that a 3-foot separation in schools is acceptable social distance in schools instead of the earlier (firmly stated) 6-foot distance? Why did no one press him on this administration’s false claims that it had to start “from scratch” to vaccinate America?

He wasn’t pressed on his promise to be a unifier. Instead he was allowed to imply that he would ram through his agenda if Republicans didn’t get on board. No reporter seemed bothered by the pile of debt that his administration is willing to roll up–an insignificant concern in the left’s s view, but a legitimate topic for debate. And so on.

Some reporters did their jobs, pressing Biden, for instance, about when the overcrowded border cells holding undocumented immigrant children traveling alone would be open to the media.

But even Jennifer Rubin writing in the Washington Post, lamented: “Biden excels at his first news conference. The media embarrass themselves. She wrote: “The repeated questions on the same topic [immigration] were tiresome and a poor use of precious time….

The media did not distinguish themselves. By asking about immigration multiple times and echoing the false narrative that Biden had created a “surge,” they showed they were more interested in sound bites than actual news. Their failure to ask about the pandemic, the recession, anti-Asian violence, climate change or even infrastructure (Biden had to bring it up himself) was nothing short of irresponsible. They pleaded for a news conference and then showed themselves to be unserious. They never laid a glove on Biden; they did, however, make the case for why these events are an utter waste of the president’s time.

They should not be a waste of our time. Go back and review other presidential press conferences. Especially those of John Kennedy, whose wit and wisdom made his not only entertaining but informative. (Here and here.)

The failure of the media to do their job and the all-too-obvious (but never admitted to) bias is sickening. One of the left’s favorite tropes is how the political right is destroying democracy, yet by abandoning their constitutionally protected role by itself constitutes a dire threat to democracy.

Related:

• The Death of Journalism I: A Fox news reporter blows a fantastic story at the border.
• The Death of Journalism II: Examples of how the once honorable profession is cutting its own throat