One of the things characterizing the Biden administration is incoherence. Biden is frequently completely unintelligible, mumbling sounds to himself and his audience. Kamala offers wordy, banal phrases that fail to hide that her premise, conclusion, and argument are all identical. And Karine Jean-Pierre, despite having her eyes glued to her notes most of the time, is the Sergeant Schultz of press secretaries, for she knows nothing most of the time. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, to learn that the Biden White House has purged over 30% of the people allowed press passes…none of whom belong to the major MSM outlets.
The Daily Signal has reported on the new standards, which affect its own White House reporter:
Over the past three months, the number of reporters with access to the White House dropped by 31%. There are now 442 fewer reporters with a coveted “hard pass”—the result of new rules announced in May that took effect Tuesday.
[snip]
The White House now requires reporters to obtain press credentials from Congress or the Supreme Court to fulfill its new requirement; Lucas is currently awaiting a decision on his applications to the other branches.
During the Trump administration, when Trump constantly made himself available to the media, the media reacted in horror when Trump booted Jim Acosta and Brian Karem, both of whom were abusive to the president and disrespectful to others in the press room. At that time, it made headline news and, after legal action, the two reporters ended up back in the press room.
Image: Karine Jean-Pierre (edited). YouTube screen grab.
This time, though, according to the Daily Signal, the MSM is remarkably silent about the purge. Not all outlets, however, are so passive.
Matthew Anthony Harper is the White House correspondent for InterMountain Christian News, which is obviously an outlet that is going to be conservative and not on board with every White House initiative. Unsurprisingly, Harper got kicked out, but he’s fighting back. His lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to the White House. The letter makes explicit what we conservatives suspect about the new rules.
Harper is unable to get access to either the Supreme Court or Congress. Both offices rejected him out of hand, telling him that because “his news organization is funded by donations, and since he is not in attendance at those locations regularly, he does not qualify.” Additionally, the Supreme Court admits only 25 news outlets, while the Congressional Radio and Television Galleries outlet says that applicants may seek accreditation only to Congress.
Harper takes a different view of things:
Harper explains that his “main news beat in Washington, D.C. is the White House,” so such requirements are simply a “road block” to fair and equal access to events.
[snip]
[I]n a letter dated Monday, lawyers for Harper told Karine Jean-Pierre, Biden’s press secretary, that the new requirements appear “to be an effort to purge smaller, regional news outlets who cannot afford enough reporters to continually cover both the White House and another branch of the government.”
As the letter notes, non-MSM outlets are hit hardest:
These new restrictions appear aimed at reducing press access to the White House and are both arbitrary and discriminatory against small, diverse news outlets that will otherwise go unrepresented at White House press conferences.
As matters now stand, if you’re a member of MSNBC, you can ask the administration any loving, easy questions you want. (How’s that ice cream, Mr. President? Are you still enjoying being the first black, lesbian press secretary, Karine?) But if you’re not one of the in-crowd, the administration doesn’t want you anywhere near it.
Don’t be surprised if the next round of rules is magically targeted at Peter Doocy, for he’s one of the rare reporters to ask hard questions. There’s a reason that Joe Biden (estimated IQ 90, except when it comes to his criminal intelligence quotient, where he—or maybe someone else in his family—scores remarkably high) called Doocy a “stupid son of a bitch.”
Currently, the Biden administration, having trampled roughshod over ordinary citizens (and past presidents) who oppose it, has been treading gently when it comes to the media. However, as it circles the MSM wagons, you can expect that it will start targeting specific media outlets and reporters for misinformation which, if you’re a serious pessimist, you believe will soon be a criminal offense.