The overtly friendly relationship between the big box media and the Biden administration is getting harder to hide with each passing day. The latest stale rendition of the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, a sad relic of a long-lost Washington press heyday, drives home just how low credentialed journalism in America has fallen.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is facing grave accusations of weaponizing US intelligence offices for political purposes. Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell has testified before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees that Blinken orchestrated the crafting of an infamous letter signed by 51 intel officials before the 2020 presidential election suggesting that the Hunter Biden laptop bombshell was Russian disinformation.
This should place Blinken squarely in the hotseat, the focus of intense media investigation. Not only is that not happening but, instead, a chummy place of honor has been prepared for him. On April 29, Blinken will be the special guest sitting at the ABC News table at the White House Correspondents’ Association banquet.
Our Dinner With Team Biden
There is no shame in the Swamp, and that extends to its media wing. Politico, the establishment insider news site that just allowed French President Emmanuel Macron to edit the content of its interview with him before publication, posted “a list of who some White House officials will be sitting with at the Washington Hilton.”
Antony Blinken (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“Landing a table at the front of the room – near where President Joe Biden, [WHCA president Tamara] Keith and other WHCA board members will sit – has become a symbol of importance among the D.C. media world,” Politico related. “In the past few days, Keith has responded to a flood of emails from people unhappy about their table location.”
“Many people are going to be sitting at tables that they don’t think correctly acknowledge their importance and stature. And that’s really tough,” Keith told the outlet. “It’s impossible for me to convince anyone that your table placement is not a value judgment.”
What better way to soothe bruised egos than to have an authentic member of Team Biden at your table? Here are some of the dinner companions:
ABC: Blinken and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona
CBS: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Chris Wray
NBC: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Wall Street Journal: Senior adviser Neera Tanden and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley
USA Today: National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby
NPR: COVID response coordinator Ashish Jha
Los Angeles Times: Deputy communications director Kate Berner and press secretary to the vice president Kirsten Allen
The LA Times sure seems to have a pleasant working relationship with Biden’s communications staff. How cozy may be reflected by a shocking revelation on April 26. Biden was detected holding a cheat sheet during a joint press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. The card contained a picture of Times’ reporter Courtney Subramanian along with the question she was about to ask him.
Politico is allowing a European head of state to edit news articles about him, and The Los Angeles Times is providing the questions it is going to ask the president of the United States in advance. These are the people who are going to be congratulating themselves alongside Biden staffers in a swank Washington hotel dining room.
Big Media Cover Conservatives: Insurrectionists Obsessed With ‘White Victimhood’
A look at how that back-slapping works provides more embarrassment. WHCA awards doled out at the 2022 dinner were transparently in line with Biden talking points against former President Donald Trump and associated “enemy of democracy” dragons.
A sampling from the WHCA website:
The Aldo Beckman Award For Overall Excellence In White House Coverage
Jonathan Swan, Axios
From the Judges:
Swan’s riveting Off The Rails series describing the post-election turmoil in the White House illuminated, with speed and detail, the last-ditch efforts to overturn the [2020 presidential] election. The series also revealed President Trump’s ongoing attempts to put a loyalty stamp on the government’s national security apparatus. The stories, and their accompanying podcast, have been source material for the [House Democrats’] Jan. 6 investigating committee....
Award For Excellence in Presidential Coverage Under Deadline Pressure – Broadcast
Jonathan Karl, ABC News, Jan. 6 coverage
From the Judges:
While the insurrection was still unfolding, Jonathan Karl was delivering a comprehensive, even-keeled and thorough piece of television that was visually powerful and compelling. Karl’s richly sourced reporting provided his viewers with a sense of what he so accurately described as the “chaos and lawlessness striking at the heart of American democracy.”
Tucker Carlson (Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images)
This is how wildly partisan the establishment news media in the United States have become. And it is only going to get worse.
On April 26, NBC News “reported” on Tucker Carlson’s exit from Fox News. “[N]owhere was Carlson’s loss felt more than on the fringe and right-wing websites and forums where so many of his narratives originated,” the network wrote. “Beyond the attacks and misinformation, Carlson also embraced some of the more extreme views of white supremacists.... An analysis last year by The New York Times... found he devoted at least 600 segments to white victimhood.... Without Carlson, experts say, a sort of pipeline carrying misinformation and hateful ideologies from the fringes of the internet to a large national audience is now missing a crucial juncture.”
No, this is not an opinion piece. NBC published it as straight “news.”
This is how one of the four major television networks in America “reports” on conservatives today. But it comes at a price. For big box media outlets to claim impartiality has become almost impossible. Maybe they can all spitball that problem over crab-stuffed mushrooms and pre-dinner cocktails as an exceedingly comfortable Antony Blinken smiles along with the very people who should be investigating him.
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