After over two months of waiting, the media finally got its chance to have a formal press conference with President Biden. The lack of a press conference turned into a mini-scandal of sorts, especially on right wing media outlets, but also mainstream media as well. As a result, you might expect that the DC press corps would come armed with a wide range of questions that produce valuable, insightful answers from the new President about the many problems facing the country. But the press conference was a boring, barely newsworthy affair that's most reported on answer involved the horserace politics of an election four years away.
The new President simply was somehow not asked about the pandemic that has dominated the news cycle for the last year. Instead, the majority of the questions centered on the surge of people arriving at the border from Central America. Immigration and border stories are important, and the problem isn't that he should not have been asked about that. But so many other issues were completely absent from reporter's questions. No pandemic questions, no gun control questions, nothing. The President barely made news. Perhaps the media had become so used to the chaotic circus that was a Trump press conference, where they hardly had to work at all for the President to say something that would dominate a news cycle. But as we go forward under a new President, they will have to adjust their strategy. This is a President who will actually respond to a follow up question. As such, it is their responsibility to make those questions tough and thoughtful.
Hopefully, the press will learn from this experience and next time draw out answers from the President more interesting than his "expectation" that he could run for office four years from now.
Herb Porath, March 29, 2021
ReplyDeleteAdyson,
Your description of President Biden’s first formal news conference is right on. The question is why did the press throw the president marshmallows when they could have thrown him hardballs. I could think of a many questions to ask aside from immigration, that affects our country and our relationship with the world around us.
My opinion, with a new progressive president who is in tune with the ideology of the mainstream media, the media and President Biden are currently a mutual admiration society. A considerable amount of the Biden / media love affair is the fallout of the antagonistic relationship between Trump and the media for over four years. The media support for Biden was evident during the campaign, after four years of being demeaned by an administration, the press just wants to get along. It is said the first 100 days in a presidency is a honeymoon period and in the case of the media that is a true statement, although all honeymoons eventually come to an end.
Hey Adyson,
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with the points you made. Thanks for this post I enjoyed reading it!
I feel like there could be a few potential reasons the tough questions weren't asked. Maybe they haven't made any new progress on anything corona virus related or maybe he just want to put it in the back burners like Trump did. I could also see them practicing a few easy questions to allow Biden and his team to practice them so he doesn't potentially stutter or forget the point he was trying to make. I feel as if he has already had a few vulnerable moments as president like not being able to walk up the stairs to get on Air Force One.
ReplyDeleteIt is totally strange that he wasn't asked covid-19 related questions. I think the reason they did this was to ask him questions that he wasn't expecting to get or in other words, catch him off guard to see what he would say about a issue that he previously had so much stuff about.
ReplyDeleteYou made some really interesting points. It was weird how Biden was not asked about the pandemic. You would think that that would be the main topic of the questions. Biden will definitely fly under the radar over many things because he is viewed as "better than Trump".
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect example of what happens when the media does not do their job effectively. It is, in a way, unheard of for a President's conference to barely make any news headlines. Furthermore, with the media outlets looking for soundbites that will cause public uproar, this will continue to happen. President Biden is more chooses his words more purposefully. Therefore, the media should do the same if they are aim to gain the attention of the public.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post, I had not noticed that the press didn't even ask Biden a question about covid-19. I do think its strange but I don't think that the Central American border surge is by any means a softball question. I think right wing media will certainly hone in on any response, even if much of Biden's response is pretty similar to Trump's response.
ReplyDelete