Tanzina: I'm Tanzina Vega and this is The Takeaway. Last week President Biden held his first formal news conference with the White House press corps, but the results were mixed. For about an hour, reporters lobbed multiple questions at the president, including some about the number of migrants at the southern border, filibuster reform and even his reelection plans, but one thing reporters didn't ask him about was the rise of anti-Asian violence, or the pandemic and his administration's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package.
Some critics said the White House press corps failed to do its job, especially after they made such a fuss about President Biden not yet having had a formal press conference since taking office. Susan Glasser is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Susan, thanks so much for being with me.
Susan: Thanks for having me.
Tanzina: You wrote a recent column titled The Presidential Press Conference In The Biden Era Is As Awful As Ever. Susan, tell me how you really felt about that press conference?
[laughter]
Susan: Mixed feelings.
Tanzina: Top line, what's your top line Susan? What went wrong?
Susan: You can look at this in different ways as another sign of normalcy. Let's remember that the status quo anti-Donald Trump of our politics was not so great to begin with. Every president has to find his medium that works for communication with the American people, that's part of the job. Barrack Obama didn't love the big stage, the press conference either, the fragmenting of our media has meant that it declined for a long time. It certainly never seemed that it was going to be the thing for Joe Biden, and we all understand, I think, the politics behind why he put it off and put it off, that just had the result of elevating the importance of the story because this was the latest that a new president has had a press conference since the Coolidge, Calvin Coolidge administration.
Tanzina: Of course, we are coming off of a shall we call it-- What's the word I'm looking for? Atypical administration when it comes to dealing with the press, that would be the Trump administration, which after a while, just didn't even hold press conferences at all. Is this a question of the press adjusting itself to the Biden administration?
Susan: I think that is a good question. I took in those terms. I thought it was very painful to watch at times, this reflects the slicing and dicing of news in ever thinner, little nuances that I think for the large part of the American people, they're just not engaging with it that way and so you had what it felt to be this almost repetitive cycle of immigration, immigration, filibuster, filibuster, and he wasn't saying anything in response to any of those. It was, I think, painful to watch. It's a long way from Ronald Reagan used to hold these in primetime.
It's a different media era, this was a middle of the day cable news thing and, of course, reporters jobs is different than that of just a regular American viewer in terms of reporters are trying to get at the nuances in the story, but I found it particularly shocking that in one year plus into this pandemic, at a time when his major announcement revolves around the availability of the vaccine and very ambitious new goals, not a single question about the pandemic, not a single question about the $1.9 trillion aid package that was just passed and how it will be distributed to Americans and American cities and states. It really just seemed like a disconnect of a fundamental nature.
Tanzina: I hate to say, we don't know what editors were thinking because reporters go in there prepared, it's wasn't a surprise. They were ready to go with questions. How does that happen? How do you miss something that large and also not just the aid package, but also the fact that more than half a million Americans have died, cases are still rising, while we're neck and neck with vaccine efforts. I'm with you, Susan, in that I don't understand how that didn't happen. How not one question about the pandemic wasn't asked.
Susan: I think you're right to wonder about that, I also wonder about that and I've been an editor of Washington publications and a writer for the last few decades. I'm mystified by it. I think I've seen some people saying in the last few days since the press conference, "It's because that COVID is a good news story for Joe Biden and the press doesn't like good news." I don't accept that. I don't think that's actually a rational explanation. I've so many questions--
Tanzina: That's not even a-
Susan: -just out of the news in the last few days, right? Don't you want to know-- What about vaccine skeptics? You say you're going to make 200 million doses in arms by the end of your first 100 days but are there enough people who are willing to take them? How many Americans do we need to convince to take this vaccine in order to reach that herd immunity stage. There's just so many questions that are legitimate and important journalistic questions.
Tanzina: I wonder if that gets us to the next point here which is that are journalists looking to make news for themselves or are they really looking to ask questions on behalf of the American people? It feels like in some ways that's what happened when they asked a president who's been in office for less than four months whether or not he planned on running again in 2024, that became a bizarre headline and I'm just wondering whether that was more useful for the outlet to make its own news or whether that was a question that Americans were really wondering, like I said, less than four months into a new administration.
Susan: Look I have huge respect, these are very difficult jobs just look at the beating that this same white house press board took for last four years being characterized as enemies of the people, I actually do think it's a legitimate question when he's the oldest president who's ever been inaugurated for a first term. I might have gotten lost frankly was when the follow up question was about "Are you going to have Kamala Harris on the ticket?" that just seems like we're getting ahead of ourselves at this point. It's so early on as you pointed out.
Look, let's be clear, it's not so much about Monday morning quarterbacking any particular question here. The question is these journalists are acting in good faith but what is the medium? These things encourage showboating. I'm a print journalist. I am biased, I will admit it, in favor of investigative reporting, original reporting that tells you something and all of your colleagues aren't doing at the same time. These are staged for the cameras reporters inevitably can appear either to be props or to be, as you said, speaking for their own network.
It's the format of it as well I think of the press conference that feels like it's not a great fit for the era and then there's Biden himself who seemed to be so worried about the old Joe Biden filibustering and stem winders that it was an awkward format for him as well.
Tanzina: We're going to see how-- This is just the first, so hopefully we've got a couple more years of these press conferences to go and and, yes, to your point it is not an easy job and so we definitely appreciate the work that those folks are doing every day. Susan Glasser is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Susan thanks so much.
Susan: Thank you. Great to speak with you.
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