The crew running President Joe Biden's re-election campaign face tough headwinds and continuous turbulence in their effort to secure four more years for our octogenarian commander in chief. Lasting damage to the president's standing caused by his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and record-high gas prices earlier in this term have been compounded by the lasting and still-rising pressure of inflation and the outbreak of multiple wars amid a worsening border crisis. Biden's approval ratings continue to sink deeper underwater, and his failure to deter Iranian proxy attacks on U.S. troops and shipping vessels have made him look even weaker. Now, Biden's 2024 campaign is trying to right its sinking ship with a telling media strategy that involves spreadsheets, scolding, and off-the-record meetings.
Apparently, per a dispatch from Semafor, the Biden camp has started "organizing a series of off-the-record trips for top political reporters and editors to the team’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware and meet senior officials, including the campaign manager, deputies, and other high-ranking advisors for background briefings on campaign strategy." A little cozying up with the liberal media that covered for Joe Biden's 2020 basement campaign and other outlets with wide reach isn't that strange for Biden's campaign. But Team Biden isn't just throwing some of its lapdogs a bone.
In addition, the 2024 campaign is using the meetings "as an opportunity to tell them what they’re getting wrong," according to Semafor.
"Two people with knowledge of the situation told Semafor that during meetings with reporters from outlets like The New York Times, the Washington Post, and others, campaign officials have invoked a coverage spreadsheet laying out areas where the team believes their reporting has fallen short." How fun.
Apparently, "campaign officials have chafed at some of the coverage of former President Donald Trump, feeling that outlets are too focused on his legal troubles and haven’t paid enough attention to some of his incendiary recent statements on the campaign trail," Semafor explained. "A source familiar told Semafor that with the exception of its recent meeting with the Times, the campaign meetings had been 'substantive' and 'productive,' and that Biden staffers were scheduled to meet in the coming days with political reporting teams from ABC, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fox, NPR, Reuters, Bloomberg, and others in Wilmington."
Recommended
🟡 SCOOP: The Biden campaign is bringing top journalists to Wilmington and using the trips as an opportunity to tell reporters and editors what they’re getting wrong, @maxwelltani reports.https://t.co/IHp1Q06T9Y
— Semafor (@semafor) January 8, 2024
So the Biden campaign is trying to scold reporters into providing better coverage of their candidate — which is not their job — and the Washington Post, at least, has apparently been receptive to Team Biden's spreadsheets full of critiques. It remains curiously unclear what may have gone poorly in the meeting with the New York Times, but to be a fly on the wall for that one...
First, the idea that the media is too tough on Biden and going easy on Trump is utterly hilarious. No sane person believes that to be the case. Second, the Biden campaign's plan demonstrates again that Democrats believe the press works for them and exists only to be their loyal stenographers. It's a load of malarkey.