There is a marked change on how the media is dealing with the White House Press Secretary, now that there is a new broom. The questions have just gotten a lot easier:
There is a marked change on how the media is dealing with the White House Press Secretary, now that there is a new administration. The questions have just gotten a lot easier:
"On a lighter note, will [President Biden] keep Donald Trump's Air Force One color scheme change?" asked a journalist, for example.
Jen Psaki, the new White House Press Secretary as of yesterday, replied:
"This is such a good question."
"I have not had the opportunity to dig into that today, given the number of executive actions, orders, the inauguration, a few things happening."
"I will venture to get you an answer on that and maybe we can talk about it in here tomorrow."
Unfortunately, this seemed to be the tenor of the whole press conference; nobody wanted to ask any question that might make Psaki have to work a little.
The media's job in an ostensibly liberal democracy such as the United States is, in great part, to be a watchdog on government, and to ask the hard-hitting questions one would expect to be asked, especially since the country appears to be on a very different tack with the new Biden administration.
It's also definitely worth noting that the previous Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, was treated markedly differently than Psaki is being treated.
McEnany even wound up being banned on Twitter once, along with journalists who dared to tweet anything negative about the Biden family.
In fact, hosts of shows on the MSM actually went on air and bragged about how they wouldn't have her on their shows.
It can only be hoped that in the future, journalists will start to be at least a fraction as aggressive and dogged with Psaki as they were with her predecessor.
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