Biden Whines off the Record That the Media Is Doing Him Wrong – Opinion

During his “interview” with Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday night, Joe Biden claimed that Americans weren’t appreciating all that he’s achieving because he just hasn’t been able to communicate his message effectively. But even his effort to communicate that didn’t make a lot of sense when he spoke about getting “clicks on the nightly news” and he rambled on, unable to complete a coherent sentence.

Biden says there’s a lot of “major things” he’s done, he just hasn’t “been able to communicate it in a way that is, uh, um…”

Then he starts to ramble about journalists getting “clicks for the nightly news”, and then they go on to commercial. pic.twitter.com/uTiEu495C2

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 9, 2022

But when Biden is saying his message is not being communicated effectively, if you thought he was apologizing or thinking that his team was admitting they had a problem in that regard, that’s not exactly what he’s saying. What he’s saying is that the media isn’t being fair to him and that’s why Americans are confused and don’t recognize his greatness and all the wonderful things he’s done.

He believes that the liberal media does not do him justice. Not only does he believe that, he whined to them in an off-the-record session during a trip on Air Force One where “He used much of his time with reporters to criticize the quality and tenor of press coverage of his administration.”

There is growing frustration by the president and his family that he is not receiving the kind of generally more positive coverage they believe he deserves — that too often attention is focused on staff turnover and poor poll numbers and not a robust jobs market and America’s relatively strong economic recovery.

“His family?” Can we translate that to Jill being upset? The problem is revealed in this very complaint. First, it isn’t the messaging, it’s his bad policies. Second, it means he hasn’t been listening to what the American people have been saying to him in poll after poll. His priority isn’t how he’s messed everything up or how that has hurt Americans, it’s how all of this is affecting him. It’s about how dare the media and the American people not fully appreciate him. What’s the bottom line? Americans are hurting with inflation and gas prices — that should be what he’s concentrated on, not what people think of him.

But if he thought the media wasn’t accurately covering him, maybe Biden and his team should be looking at how they are communicating with the media. After any remarks or event, they rush the media to leave the room. He rarely takes questions, and the Kimmel interview was the first such interview that he’s done in 120 days. He is still admired by the media. But, as we reported, some of the media is losing patience with the way they’re being treated by the Biden team.

Politico notes:

He hasn’t done a sit-down interview with The New York Times’ or Washington Post’s non-opinion sections since taking office, a departure from his former boss BARACK OBAMA, who regularly gave one-on-ones to the Times during his first year. Biden similarly shut down wire services, such as Reuters or The Associated Press. Though he’s given a handful of interviews to the major networks, he still hasn’t conducted a one-on-one with CNN (though he’s done several town hall appearances).

“I can’t think of a parallel situation – it’s the fifth president I’ve covered and the first one I haven’t interviewed,” said PETER BAKER, The New York Times’ chief White House correspondent. “They feel neither the obligation nor the opportunity.”

Baker added that the best White House reporting often isn’t the result of interviews with the president but that extended sit-downs remain an important function of accountability. “Reporters whining about not getting interviews is one of the least attractive elements of White House press corps,” he said. “But the president talks about defending democracy and that’s part of democracy too – answering questions from people not on your side.”

It sounds as if you are ragging on them a little bit when the media mentions your session off-the-record in which they bash you. You can add another example to the growing media shaming Biden.