When White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced at the very beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term that new and independent media would be invited to play a big role in covering the administration, the collective eye roll from traditional media was as immediate as it was condescending.
We all remember Trump’s first term, when his press conferences often devolved into a full-contact sport, with former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta wrestling a female White House aide for the microphone, for example, amid nothing but constant “gotcha” questions.
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The snarky back and forth from the media in those days created entertainment, but a lot more heat than light. The White House press in Trump’s first term sought always to expose Trump for this or that, but almost never to truly understand the administration’s policies.
There were exceptions, of course, such as your favorite cable news network, whose White House correspondents play it down the middle no matter who’s in office. But in general, Trump faced a daily inquisition, while his successor, President Biden, more or less got a free pass throughout his abysmal four years as president.
Today, the addition of independent outlets such as Epoch News, The Post Millennial, OAN, and others has transformed Trump’s press availabilities from a hackling shouting match, into a substantive, almost daily discussion of the administration’s actions and priorities.
With the exemption of the recalcitrant Associated Press, which has weirdly decided to die on the hill of defending the name “Gulf of Mexico,” all the old Trump haters from The New York Times to NBC News are still in the room; they just don’t completely dominate it anymore.
If you listen to a news conference with Trump now, as opposed to five years ago, you do not come away with the impression that he is some sort of pariah who everyone hates and thinks is a liar. We have a full spectrum of media in there, and it has brought comity to the process, but there are still tough questions, too.
Does the new, mostly conservative, media in the White House toss up some softballs? Sure. Are the online thank yous to Leavitt for opening up the room a bit saccharine? Certainly.
But compared to what? A mainstream media that just nodded along as former White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told us Biden was fit as a fiddle and she was a very important historical figure? Spare me.
The fact of the matter is that outlets like the Daily Caller or even Steve Bannon’s War Room, are no more biased to the right than NPR, a long-time staple in the Oval Office, is biased to the left, nor are they abnormal. Even super leftwing California Gov. Gavin Newson just had Bannon on his new podcast.
For four years, we had a White House press corps that, with the exception of Fox News and Real Clear Politics, ran cover for Biden and KJP. Even CNN’s Jake Tapper is now out with a book, basically apologizing for the liberal media’s horrible coverage of Grandpa Joe.
So if we all admit that the press did a terrible disservice to the American people with its one-sided and farcical coverage of Biden, then how can we complain that both sides of the American political divide are now represented in the room?
Seventy percent of Americans do not trust journalism today, and for extremely good reasons like those outlined above. I’m a journalist, and even I don’t trust journalism. But this fresh approach from the White House could be a step in restoring some level of trust.
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Americans know when they are only getting one side of the story, we have a basic sense of fairness that rankles when we see the powerful put a thumb on the scale, and by inviting all perspectives in the room, the White House is allowing us to weigh arguments freely and fairly.
I came up in independent conservative media, writing for outlets including The Federalist and The Daily Wire, which have unwavering commitments to honesty. Of course, they belong in the White House, and everyone is better off for their presence there.
To turn an old saying upside down, “if it’s broke, fix it,” and the news media’s coverage of the White House, for years now, has been badly broken, maybe, just maybe, these new and formerly banished voices in the Oval Office are just what we need to fix it.
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