Michael LaRosa was Jill Biden's press secretary for the first 18 months of Joe Biden's presidency, and in recent weeks he's loosened his lips about how Team Joe mistreated a pliant press corps.
In an interview with Cenk Uygur on "The Young Turks" show, LaRosa admitted: "They did bully a lot of journalists, and I think they would tell you that now. They wouldn't have told you at the time."
LaRosa didn't want to say the reporters were co-conspirators, but it's impossible to see all of their obsequious cooperation with Team Biden and think that word is inappropriate.
Uygur asked how they bullied the press, and LaRosa said Joe's handlers insisted they had to pre-approve the quotes used in stories. That's helping shape the story, not something an "independent journalist" would accept.
LaRosa added, "You saw them get caught trying to script questions to radio reporters" last summer.
They didn't just "try." The radio hosts the Bidenites selected were happy to use the pre-scripted questions.
LaRosa added, "It was very reminiscent to me of being on the campaign in 2020, where these young press staffers in these states like New Hampshire, or Iowa, or Nevada, they were sort of like dog trained to make the questions conditional for interviews." Questions had to be submitted for approval.
On "Dr." Jill Biden's team, LaRosa said, he told staffers it was "unethical" to require questions before granting access, but they replied it's what Team Joe (or "the boys team") required. "These young kids are really taught to make that a part of their sort of pre-pre-screening for interviews."
"Yeah, it's amazing to me that no one in the press complained about it," mused Uygur. The press corps was stuffed with pushovers, from the same leftist press outlets who screamed hostile, unscreened questions at Trump and called it "strengthening democracy."
Uygur wondered: "Did the press ever push back? We couldn't see the press pushing back at all, until the debate (fiasco)." This underlined how much the press is a megaphone for Democrats, and when the Donkey Party breaks down into two sides, the press will then present both sides.
LaRosa thought maybe the local reporters would be less intimidated by a national campaign. "Like why didn't any of these reporters even in New Hampshire, and some of these small town papers or local news, like why didn't anybody ever say anything (about the pre-screening)? I thought it was so weird at the time."
LaRosa said Team Biden was "operating out of a bunker every day," and he never understood it because "there was so much goodwill that he had with the media" who couldn't stand Trump. He said the Bidenites were suspicious of all journalists. Or let's guess they were scared about whatever might tumble unscripted out of Biden's mouth.
Then came another interesting theme, with LaRosa saying Donald Trump manipulates the media coverage by energetically granting so much access that he becomes the primary source, that he's "good copy." Biden's team made their leader sound tightly scripted and designed to avoid making any waves, so nothing sounded authentic.
The national media elitists were never independent enough to stand up for its own prerogatives with Biden or Kamala Harris. These cowardly pols could avoid interviews as aggressively as they desired, and there was no pushback from their supposed foes.
So, we roll our eyes when journalists promote themselves as reliable professionals who are essential to a functioning government. They aren't the ones who will be "holding government accountable" when it's the government they all picked on Election Day.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.
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