Last Word

Respecting the Press

President Biden’s relationship with journalists is markedly different than Trump’s. And it’s not all positive, to say the least. BY DAN SHELLEY

Several years ago, after I boarded the Acela for one of my many trips between Washington, D.C., and New York City, police dogs began sniffing through the car. A few moments later, a stream of Secret Service agents boarded. And then, there he was: Joe Biden, the Vice President of the United States. “Amtrak Joe” was headed home to Delaware for the weekend.

I wanted to shake his hand, but I was intercepted by a woman sprinting ahead of me, who I would later learn was a congresswoman. She plopped down next to the veep and talked to him during the entire ride to Wilmington.

The only thing I could make out from their conversation was when the vice president raised his voice and said, “Listen. I know my job!”

When now-President Biden took office in January, he promised to be a kinder, gentler commander in chief. He told White House staffers, “I will fire you on the spot … if I hear you treating [anyone] with disrespect.” That admonition was tested three weeks later when deputy press secretary, T.J. Ducklo, had to resign after berating a reporter for asking about his romantic history with a journalist on the White House beat.

Six months later, the president himself lost his temper when asked a question by a reporter after a summit with Vladimir Putin. “What the hell? … You’re in the wrong business!” he snapped. A few minutes later, he apologized. But a clip of the exchange would go viral and become the set-up for a Stephen Colbert joke: “Wow. That was some strong grandpa’s-had-it-with-your-lip energy.”

White House/journalist relations during the Trump administration were almost constantly love-hate, with reporters getting nearly unprecedented access to a president who craved attention more than Big Macs. Yet his press secretaries acted as though they were wartime consiglieres.

That said, many journalists salivated about the change in administrations, not – as the rightwing punditocracy would have us believe – because they’re Democrats, but because during the previous four years there had been so many leaks they sometimes felt as though they were being waterboarded. They were yearning to catch their breath.

What they got from Team Biden was a watertight, highly disciplined communications team. Leaks are rare. Direct access to the President is less frequent. Once in a while, somebody “forgets” to include the press pool at events. Administration officials who speak to reporters on background – to be quoted but without attribution – must have their comments cleared in advance.

It seems a lot like, well, the Obama administration. Or the Bush 43 administration. In other words, any 21st Century administration that didn’t include Donald Trump.

That’s not to say that nirvana now resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. To be honest, it was probably never really there.

The Bush and Obama administrations had nasty records of persecuting and even prosecuting journalists who reported on leaked classified information. Both presidents

loathed certain news organizations. Obama’s early comms team tried to ban Fox News from the White House briefing room, until virtually every other network protested. Since the dawn of his presidency, Biden’s actions have sometimes been counter to his pledge to run a much more press-friendly administration. He decided not to hold Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accountable for the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. He looked the other way when the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services (HHS) prohibited Border Patrol officers and HHS employees from speaking with journalists as a new wave of immigrants flooded the southern border. Press freedom groups had to beg the Department of Justice (DOJ) to include the treatment of journalists as Joe Biden with NBCUniversal’s Jose Diaz-Balart part of its reviews of police responses in Minneapolis and Louisville following Biden’s actions have sometimes been the killings of George Floyd and Brecounter to his pledge to run a much onna Taylor. more press-friendly administration. In a “Casablanca”-type epiphany (“I’m shocked to find that gambling’s going on in here!”), the Justice Department “discovered” that DOJ attorneys had subpoenaed journalists’ phone and email records and obtained gag orders keeping it secret. Attorney General Merrick Garland pledged to stop it, and the House is considering a law to make sure it’s stopped for good. “Amtrak Joe” now takes Air Force One. But I think occasionally about his words: “Listen. I know my job!” Respectfully, Mr. President, when it comes to press access and transparency, please do it.

Dan Shelley is executive director of the Radio Television Digital News Association, an association devoted to broadcast and digital journalism. He can be reached at dans@rtdna.org.

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