Joe Biden’s campaign has taken a surprising turn. They’re not satisfied with the mostly positive news coverage Biden receives. So, they’ve come up with a new plan: offering exclusive access to media in return for guiding them on how to report about the campaign.
According to a Semafor report, Biden’s reelection team is organizing private visits for top political journalists to their headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. There, they meet campaign leaders, including the manager and senior advisors. The twist? These meetings are also sessions where the campaign points out what the media is supposedly getting wrong.
Here’s more. People familiar with these meetings shared with Semafor that the campaign team used a detailed spreadsheet to show reporters from places like The New York Times and The Washington Post where their reporting supposedly missed the mark.
Let’s get this straight: Biden’s campaign, which has compared Trump to Hitler and labeled him a dictator threat to democracy, is now trying to reshape media coverage. Biden himself has complained about negative media coverage and recently criticized the media for focusing on “wrong polls.” Now, his campaign seems determined to dictate what and how the media should report.
In these meetings, campaign officials have particularly expressed dissatisfaction with coverage of Donald Trump. They believe the media is too focused on Trump’s legal issues and not enough on his controversial statements. Semafor’s source mentioned that aside from a recent meeting with The New York Times, the discussions have been seen as “substantive” and “productive.” Biden’s staff plans to meet with political reporters from ABC, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fox, NPR, Reuters, Bloomberg, and others soon.
When people joked about Biden as “Beijing Biden,” no one thought he’d take the media down the path of state-controlled reporting. This move looks like a desperate attempt by a campaign trying to hold onto every thread of the narrative, knowing its grip is loosening. It’s odd for Democrats, who usually get favorable media treatment, to complain about coverage. If the media were as tough on Democrats as they are on Republicans, it might be a different political landscape.
Remember Barack Obama’s reaction when journalist Bob Woodward exposed that Obama proposed the spending cuts he blamed on Republicans? An Obama aide warned Woodward he’d “regret” this. Woodward made the threat public, and it turned out he wasn’t the only journalist pressured by the Obama White House.
A free and independent press is crucial for keeping the government in check. But with Biden’s latest move, it seems he’s edging towards dictatorial tendencies, expecting the media to act more like a mouthpiece for the state.
Author:Â Blake Ambrose