It’s early, but not too early to give Politico the scoop-of-the-year award for this: “The president so far has surprised some of his former colleagues and allies with a largely gaffe-free White House debut after a lifetime of verbal stumbles.”
The hoops you have to jump through — and with your eyes closed! — to reach a sweeping conclusion like that is what makes it award-winning. First, you must, at least temporarily, steel your mind to reject any contrary facts, including that President Biden has not held a press conference, meaning the chance for gaffes and inanities is basically zero because he always gets to read from a TelePrompter.
You also have to overlook the fact that he is only slightly more willing to agree to interview requests, which also reduces his chances to screw up. Finally, you have to pretend that he didn’t commit the many gaffes he committed when he did venture to talk with the media.
Other than that, good job. That’s how you win the big prizes in Washington.
Only later, in an on-the-other-hand sequence, do the Politico writers admit the contradictions that obliterate their opening. The most notable is that they point out that after Biden’s lone interview since taking office, with CBS, the White House “had to clarify his comments on whether Trump would receive intelligence briefings, the fate of the $15 minimum wage, and what Iran needed to do in negotiations surrounding the country’s nuclear program.”
No wonder he’s hiding — three major “clarifications” after one interview is a good reason not to do another. But hey, no gaffes, no worries.
The story is in some ways typical of the big picture that shows, now that Donald Trump is gone, the media are free to return to trivial pursuits to protect their chosen president. For four years, we were assured that journalism was about saving American democracy. Now journalism is about … nothing.
That might be reasonable if there were nothing to cover. But the willful blindness illustrates how most of the Washington press corps has put aside the brass knuckles it used on Trump and taken out the pom-poms to cheerlead for another Democrat in the White House.
