"Even if he held one today, it would be the latest any new commander in chief has faced a formal question-and-answer session with the press corps in a century.... For 20 years, presidential aides have been telling me that the news conference is high risk, low reward... [But] it’s something a president can do in service of transparency and accountability even though it may not be obviously good for his political fortunes.... Presidential news conferences are hardly the apex of White House coverage. Reporters might get a sought-after moment on TV, or finally get an answer to a question they have been asking for weeks. But by definition, they don’t get scoops there..... Will reporters ask smart, probing questions on important issues and get answers that matter to Americans beyond the Beltway? Will Biden shed light on his next priorities, or which issues he thinks can wait until later in his presidency? We won’t know until this news conference happens."
That's from a WaPo piece titled "Biden is due for a news conference. But they can be risky."
I'd say WaPo is defining expectations as low as possible. "Will reporters ask smart, probing questions"? My expectations on that are very low. I think they will baby him as much as possible.
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101 comments:
I think they will baby him as much as possible.
Life cycles. Old men looking and behaving like babies. Biden probably likes masks because he can leave out his dentures.
Take out his dentures and spoon feed him the soft mush of WH reportage.
Time to start a pool on the date?, the length of the conference if it is held? how many time "common man" is shouted? How many notes he pulls out of his pockets ? Will Dr Jill or Camel appear with him and hold his elbow.
Can we get Hunter to attend?
So many possibles the mind boggles...
Potemkin president agrees to face sympathetic media.
should be fun.
So he needs 2 weeks to prepare. I wonder what his drug and sleep regime will be. I predict lots of mid-morning "lids" in the next 2 weeks to prepare for questions like, "what do you find most rewarding about being president?" And "what are the things that put a smile on your face?" "What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?" And, of course, "how do you deal emotionally with those awful Republicans?"
Press conferences are nostalgia for people who were alive when John Kennedy was president. The reality of press conferences is nothing like the memory.
It would be more appropriate to hold it on April's Fool Day.
>>"WaPo piece titled "Biden is due for a news conference. But they can be risky."<<
WaPo needn't (pretend to) worry - the script and its readers have already been set. And WaPo is of course one of them.
Did anyone try to get through the comments? "Why does he need to have a press conference!? His people do that everyday!" "He is busy fixing the things that Trump broke, he doesn't have time", etc. When you know that these same morons would be screaming if Trump didn't do press conferences "What is he trying to hide?" "Is there cognitive decline (didn't you see him walk down that ramp?!)" "Are he and Melenia having trouble?", etc.
They are so transparent and unaware. Idiots.
The "press" will ask endless variations on how bad Trump was/is, and how brave and stunning slow Joe is for returning us to the normalcy of an occupied capitol, no borders, and selling out the country to the Chinese.
I think we know what sort of questions Biden will be asked. The softer and more babying these questions are the more it will further damage the perception of him; by those that already don't like him or think he is illegitimately in office. The rest will suck up and defend him.
Some people get even more short tempered than they were before the dementia set in. Let’s see how the dotard does if he gets asked a tough question, which I doubt will happen, but if one does get through, watch for a little bit of senile anger.
Will reporters ask smart, probing questions on important issues and get answers that matter to Americans beyond the Beltway?
I've seen little evidence to suggest that our current media is capable of anything that could be fairly described as "smart".
But at any rate, typically the only people who really care that much about presidential press conferences are members of the media. And certainly a demented, gaffe machine like Biden might provide ample fodder for headlines. And given the post-Trump ratings plunge that has occurred across most MSM news shows, I imagine they're starting to get a bit desperate for content, even if it's negative for a (D) president (and especially if such a press conference ends up being a bumbling, confused disaster).
I want to see side shots. My bet is that Biden will be wearing an earpiece. The question is...who's on the other end?
I was always impressed with the way Trump handled a hostile press. I don't particularly think those interactions were good for the country and the government. But I was still impressed with his wit, skill and dominance on the stage. He didn't back down, he took the tough questions from grandstanding reporters and dished it back at them with humor and vigor. He was game and you could tell he liked it. He was a showman and understood that the press needed him and he could use the press, too.
I would love it if we could have better reporters. There would be no need or desire for a combative showman like Trump. The babying of Biden is just another symptom of the same sickness: reporters are best understood as unregistered PAC's playing for one side. They abuse the Constitution and pretend they have special status because of it, demanding free access to the government, including by leak, but with no consequences.
Mr. President, would you be able to articulate your position on world hunger and poverty? Are you for it or against it?
Imagine if a courageous journalist asked a tough question with a follow up that actually fully exposed the facade we’ve been seeing but are not allowed to talk about. That journalist would be heroic and be remembered in the history books. Imagine if we had a real “speak truth to power” press...
What has enchanted you the most from serving in this office?
“One enchanted evening...
You may meet Obama....
Remember it’s an honor
When he teabags your dripping chin."
I'd write a list of expected questions and create a drinking game out of it, but I haven't been that blacked-out drunk since college and really don't want to experience it again now at this age.
He's got nothing to fear. He started Warp Speed, invented the vaccine, made peace w/China and Iran, did a southern border makeover, halted climate change and killed that coyote that attacked a kid in Moraga. Joe Biden, Come On Down!
"Tell us about your lovely dogs, Mr. President."
Biden will still wait for the answer thru his ear piece.
Gahrie said...My bet is that Biden will be wearing an earpiece. The question is...who's on the other end?
Imagine Biden saying out loud "OK, now tell them this... Wait! Don't say that out loud! Stop repeating exactly what I say, you idiot!"
you can trust them, why do you ask,
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=393192
They will baby him, but the main reason isn't that he's a lefty and they don't want to harm him polticaly (though that is a reason). The main reason is that they don't want to get frozen out media-wise. Though I suspect the breakdown of motivation for the two reasons isn't like 90%-10% but more like 60%-40%
You have to give credit to whoever is mixing Joe's juice these days.
Get him some blue contacts already.
He's soon to criss-cross the country to pimp the $2T relief plan without crossing the Mississippi.
from the WaPo's Correction Bureau ...
The Washington Post reported on the substance of Trump’s Dec. 23 call in January, describing him saying that Watson should “find the fraud” and that she would be a “national hero,” based on an account from Jordan Fuchs, the deputy secretary of state, whom Watson briefed on his comments.
In fact, he did not use those precise words.
Rather, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize Fulton County, where she would find “dishonesty,” he said.
He also said, “whatever you can do, Frances, it would be — it’s a great thing. It’s an important thing for the country. So important. You’ve no idea. So important. And I very much appreciate it.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-call-georgia-investigator/2021/03/11/c532ea2e-827a-11eb-ac37-4383f7709abe_story.html
This kind of mistake is beyond serious. There's zero accountability in major corporate media anymore, yet they continually insist they're the ones holding the line on the truth. And always remember what should scare you about the media is what *doesn't get exposed."
makes you wonder how a cabbage farmer would spin this? ('course, they'll just ignore it)
The press conference might be interesting.
Suppose that "President" Biden accidentally calls on a reporter who has not been given one of the planted questions?
I’ve been watching many of the Jen Psaki daily press briefings. The Biden Administration is doing more of those than we saw for much of the Trump Administration.
Have you seen many of those, Althouse. Honest answer appreciated.
I ask because the White House press corps is not taking it easy with Psaki. It leads me to expect that your own prediction that President Biden wouldn’t get any hard questions is baseless. If it isn’t baseless, perhaps you could be more specific on the basis of what is essentially a slur upon White House reporters.
Your assertion doesn’t even make much sense, since we both know of some reporters, like Fox’s Peter Doocy, who would love to hammer Biden. Doocy asks hard questions of Jen Psaki every time he’s in the same room with her.
What is your favorite pudding flavor?
Do you like the pudding at lunch or with dinner?
Briefs or briefs?
What is your favorite color?
Favorite tree?
And he would still struggle.
Or maybe he has his first news conference to announce he will be standing down due to issues to let HeelsUp carry the socialist torch with vim and vigor going forward?
I think it will be tightly scripted and tightly controlled.
The left-media/ deep state need good sound bites for the hivemind.
Chuck at 1:19 PM
I’ve been watching many of the Jen Psaki daily press briefings.
Nobody thinks that Psaki is suffering from dementia. Therefore, Psaki can be asked any question.
Gahrie said...
I want to see side shots. My bet is that Biden will be wearing an earpiece.
Salute the Marines
prediction that President Biden wouldn’t get any hard questions is baseless
Could Somebody please provide a link, to the last time (A time) that President Biden was asked a hard question?
Should be Easy! These things are recorded, afterall
The whole thing is a joke. Pretending that he has nothing wrong with him, won't make him any better. But the left loves to play make believe. We are living in their Utopia now.
Salute the Marines
Exactly.
Come see Jo-Jo the Idiot President try to string a couple coherent sentences together.
Blogger Mike Sylwester said...
Chuck at 1:19 PM
“I’ve been watching many of the Jen Psaki daily press briefings.”
Nobody thinks that Psaki is suffering from dementia. Therefore, Psaki can be asked any question.
But set aside who and what Psaki is, and who and what Biden is. Althouse s talking about the White House press corps. Althouse expects that they will somehow go easy on Biden. Really? Peter Doocy will go easy on Biden? And the rest of them, who don’t “go easy” on Jen Psaki; they will go easy on Biden where they don’t go easy on Jen Psaki?
One of the reasons why Trump lost to Biden was that Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden during their first debate.
I think that Trump was trying to take advantage of Biden's dementia. Trump expected that his interruptions would confuse Biden and thus reveal Biden's dementia.
However, Trump's interruptions backfired. I think that he lost hundreds of thousands of votes because of that obnoxious tactic.
"President" Biden is given an effective medicine that keeps his mind rather clear for a necessary couple of hours.
This medicine is gradually becoming less effective, and it might have some bad side-effects.
Therefore, the Democrat reporters at the press conference will be careful not to ask Biden any questions that might confuse him.
Althouse says:My expectations on that are very low.
You are the Mistress of Understatement. Having expectations at all is giving Biden too much credit.
Chuck at 1:29 PM
But set aside who and what Psaki is, and who and what Biden is. Althouse s talking about the White House press corps. Althouse expects that they will somehow go easy on Biden.
Most members of the White House press corps are Democrats who are reluctant to reveal "President" Biden's dementia. In that regard, the fact that they ask Psaki difficult questions is irrelevant.
Those members of the White House press corps eventually will help to expose Biden's dementia to the public. However. the right time for that exposure still is several months in the future.
When the press corps does begin to expose Biden's dementia, then the removal of Biden from his office already will be well on its way.
The list of propagandists he will be allowed to call on are being contacted now
Questions must be submitted by Thursday noon
3/15/21, 1:30 PM
Blogger Doug said...
Althouse says:My expectations on that are very low.
You are the Mistress of Understatement. Having expectations at all is giving Biden too much credit.
You are misreading Althouse. Sorry, but you just are.
Althouse wasn’t saying that Biden is not competent to answer questions. She may feel that way; she might want to advance that argument.
But no; what she is very explicitly saying in this blog post is that the White House press corps is a monolithic body that will “baby” the President. “I think they will baby him as much as possible.” That is Althouse’s assertion. Althouse is alleging journalistic corruption, and a concerted effort to avoid asking any hard questions. For a journalist, it is an allegation of malpractice.
Without discernible basis for such an allegation so far as I can see.
I'm wondering if the date of the press conference is being announced so publicly because that is when he will be forced to resign, I mean announce he is stepping aside for President Kamala Harris.
After all, Presidential press conferences are typically fairly common events. Heck, Trump held one in 2020 nearly every time he walked outside.
Blogger alfromchgo said...
Time to start a pool on the date?
What’s the over/under?
They'll only call on people whose questions are tightly vetted beforehand.
These same WaPo commenter assholes accused Trump of "hiding" dementia if he did not give a press conference every single day.
Who thinks Peter Doocy will even be allowed to ask any questions? Who thinks that anybody that would ask that senile misogynist will get a chance?
Fair warning to practice your fattest softballs, meat.
If that was supposed to be funny Chuck, it wasn't. It was dumb, and even dumber coming from the so called President of the United States. Too bad he can't answer a normal question like a REAL President.
Chuck at 1:51 PM
Peter Doocy doesn't seem like a Democrat.
We will see who will get to ask questions at the press conference, and we will see what those questions will be.
Maybe you will turn out to be right and I will turn out to be wrong.
I am just speculating about this situation.
Can't wait for that Migrants to Michigan bussing to begin.
"Will reporters ask smart, probing questions"
"You are buying $13.45 of groceries. How much change would you receive back from a $20 bill?"
"Who was Vice President in the administration before the previous one?"
"The spaces in which illegal aliens are held are now called ___?"
"What percentage of funds in the Covid relief bill was spent on Covid relief?"
"How often do you see your grandchild in Arkansas?"
The real solution is for banned, friendless, pederast associated commenter C__! to go away to his favorite Reddit forum and wait for Migrants to Michigan bus to deliver his next pool boy.
Sorry, Chuck, you were right. That last bong hit was a pretty rich mixture. Attention span, that kind of thing. Althouse, my bad.
I thought Chuck was banned for good reason.
This is going to be worse than anyone imagines. I predict it will be canceled.
Did you see him making his comments about the military last week?
Shocking. He was so much worse than he was in October.
meanwhile,
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/03/chauvin-pre-trial-day-6-ninth-juror-seated/
Hilarious "correction " by WaPoo admitting their story about Trump calling the GA election official was a lie.
Over/under - Harris becomes president after Biden's press conference (the "over") or before the scheduled April 1 press conference (the "under")?
Do people really still think Biden got 81M votes?
That proposition makes the new age bullshit that drives crack crazy seem really down to earth and plausible.
Chuck is watching us... which is fine because we don't have anything to hide. well, except our forbidden opinions.
There is a creepy factor to left's new found fascist surveilling ways.
To the left, your opinions are noted, and will not be tolerated.
the collective left are the happy warriors in the surveillance state. An army of Rolfs. It starts small, and snowballs into a boulder of psychotic antifa.
"without a discernible basis"
Boy, Chuck, you're not even pretending anymore ...
Biden will get asked hard questions as frequently as Psaki has. Which is: Rarely, but still managing to flub the easy ones. She didn't know who the right POC was to contact for the Space Force. After Kayleigh McEnany's extreme competence and preparedness, I can understand why Biden would be nervous. His press team is *grossly incompetent,* and he probably wonders if they'll prep him better or worse than the failure that is Psaki.
For example: Has Psaki been prepared enough to already have queued up videos and excerpts from the press's previous articles and statements to undercut the implied biases in their questions, or to reject their statements and figures?
Maybe someone can ask him about the WaPo correcting the story about Trump pressuring the Georgia Secretary of State to find votes. What a huge story that should be.
President Biden will hold his first formal news conference before April Fools’ Day, the White House says.
April Fools Day will be early this year!!
Actually, to be fair, Biden shouldn't need to be asked about the Georgia Secretary of State story. It doesn't involve Biden at all.
The WaPo *should* burn their source who lied to them. Being blatantly lied to is perhaps the only valid reason to burn a source, and in this case, the journalist who reported the lie? They got played, as the kids say. Burn that liar. Let other journalists know who is untrustworthy. Let us know which "source" lied to further their aims. Lying sources (not sources who are wrong, or who have a different opinion -- outright liars like this person) *are not real sources.*
Fools rush in?
With Biden in the White House, the jokes write themselves.
Title of Associated Press article this morning: "FEMA to help manage unaccompanied minors at US-Mexico border." Shuddabin: "President Biden declares his border policy a Federal Emergency."
Surely the whole point of being relatively tough on Psaki is to be able to tell yourself that you're not totally a pathetic shill for the incompetent (and incontinent) Biden regime. Of course, when you tell yourself that, you're still a shill - and a liar, to boot.
"Mr President, after a year of remote schooling, do you still think that poor kids are just as bright as white kids?"
Psaki can be asked any question.
Yes but what questions does she actually answer? Has she “circled back” yet on those kids in cages or exactly how many COVID positive migrants came in last week.
"Matt Sablan said...
After Kayleigh McEnany's extreme competence and preparedness, I can understand why Biden would be nervous. His press team is *grossly incompetent,* and he probably wonders if they'll prep him better or worse than the failure that is Psaki."
LOL Biden doesn't wonder or worry. The guy is a potted plant. Call me Dr. Jill might, but not Joe. The lights are on but nobody is home.
Damn do I miss Trump's impromptu press conferences as he walked to his helicopter. Everyone, right, left or center had to find them entertaining and informative as hell.
The WaPo *should* burn their source who lied to them.
Why? They would've run the story with or without a source.
Jim (4:48pm):
I suspect the reason WP hasn't burned its source is that - as in a horror movie - the sourcing is coming from inside the house!
Well, Althouse, it's too bad for your blog post here; it appears that your commenters really want to talk about the Washington Post's correction to a story a few days ago about the contents of a recorded telephone call between former President Trump and a Georgia elections investigator.
It doesn't have much to do with how the White House press corps might treat President Biden in a future press conference. But that's the way your commenters roll, I guess.
As always; your blog, your commenting rules.
I hope that we'll get the full verbatim recordings of every Trump telephone call concerning his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, so everybody is clear on what was said, fwiw. Including the Fulton County District Attorney's Office.
I hope they ask him the classic old person question, "Mr Biden, do you feel safe with the people you live with?"
Jen Snarky doesn't need to be prepared or offer responsive answers. All she has to do is spit out snark and contempt. And, amazingly -- or rather, not all that surprising, really -- she holds even the sycophant press in contempt with smart ass answers when they accidentally stumble upon a real question.
I first read this as “on April Fool’s Day,” which would be highly appropriate.
Biden* would get the Gerber strained carrots and mashed peas of questions from the supine press.
Re: the "corrected" WaPoo story
1. I'm surprised we didn't hear more about the statements that were corrected. They must not have signified much to anyone. There was a second impeachment after all. I'm surprised we didn't hear about them...oh, wait...
2. Those sappy House Republicans who voted to impeach (I am looking at you, Upton and Meijer) showed how easily they can be gulled by the corporate press. Both are three generations down the family tree from the old sharpies who made the money in their families (Whirlpool for Upton; Meijer Stores for Meijer). They want so much to be well thought of in DC. Sheesh.
3. So, those Georgia Republicans really know how to screw a pooch, don't they? It reminds me of Illinois in the 1990s and 2000s. In a couple of years, they'll have Dims as far as the eye can see. Stacy Abrams: Beyond Thunderdome.
4. I went to college with some people who later became big deals in the DC press corps. They aren't very smart. They are easy to trick, too.
Mr Joe, you promised to tell the truth. Did you win the election due to massive voter fraud? Also, who is dictating in your ear what you need to say right now?
I'm guessing they'd have to kidnap Peter Doocy to prevent him from asking any real questions.
I knew the WaPo story was B.S. from the start so I didn’t need the correction, and the kool aide drinkers who line up to take what the WaPo dishes out don’t care if the story was a lie anyway, so if there is a correction, and it changes nobody’s mind, was there really a correction?
Gahrie said...My bet is that Biden will be wearing an earpiece. The question is...who's on the other end?
Imagine Biden saying out loud "OK, now tell them this... Wait! Don't say that out loud! Stop repeating exactly what I say, you idiot!"
According to legend, while working on her last film, "Sextette" (1978), Mae West's hearing was so poor that she had a wear an earpiece under her wig, and that it occasionally picked up radio police calls by mistake...
"Mr. President, what is your view on..."
"Well, I...attention all units! Liquor store shooting on E Street...!"
Team Pedophile: "Well, Althouse, it's too bad for your blog post here; it appears that your commenters really want to talk about the Washington Post's correction to a story a few days ago about the contents of a recorded telephone call between former President Trump and a Georgia elections investigator."
Looks like the self-designated and Banned NAMBLA-"Curious" Commenter Who Was Banned is very very very upset that his pro-marxist democratical lies about Trump have now been so fully exposed even the Bezos-pamphlet Washington Post had to retract the lies.
Personally I would think LLR-lefty Chuck and the rest of the gang down at Whitmer's re-election headquarters would be far too busy hiding the facts of Whitmer's Cuomo-like murdering of elderly in nursing homes to be posting at Althouse.
"The news conference is high risk, low reward" -- for the reporters. If one of them accidentally asks a hard question, it could be career-ending.
As noted elsewhere on Teh Interwebs, its not just the astonishing lies pushed by Team Pedophile Chuck's soviet-esque pals, multiple other soviet-esque legacy nedia outlets also published stories of how they "independently verified" the now admitted hoax story.
Neat trick, eh?
April 1st arrives early this year. Will the jackass see his shadow?
jackass (n.)
"male ass," 1727, from jack (n.) + ass (n.1).
...
The initial vowel of the English word might be by influence of Celtic forms (Irish and Gaelic asal), from Old Celtic *as(s)in "donkey."
If one of them accidentally asks a hard question, it could be career-ending.
His political life will persist, until they deem him politically incongruent, no longer viable, or otherwise a "burden", whichever comes first. Then, figuratively speaking, disarm, dismember, decapitate. Planned President. Karmic irony.
They are going over the approved list of reporters, and crafting the questions which will be handed out to each of them. But while this is going on, my money is on Biden messing something up in a short comment between now and April 1. In the end, he will not give a press conference before April 1.
Bet on it.
They are going over the approved list of reporters, and crafting the questions which will be handed out to each of them.
Press Craft (PC): affirmative discrimination of any people... persons and questions deemed to be off-color.
The very same liberal license exercised for judgment and cancellation of members of the National Guard, the military, in progress, and Americans deemed to be a "burden".
If Kamala succeeds Joe, will she do the Slut Walk, wear a Pussyhat in boots, and take a knee at her inauguration for social progress? #MeToo #HerToo
Biden looks drugged every time he is allowed to speak. Mostly monotone from the clips I see of him on the news. I remember the old days when he was animated in everything he said and did to the point his people needed to take his Espresso away before his exaggerations, lies, and word whoppers got out of hand. Now, he needs a double Espresso before he speaks. Even creepier, Kamala most of the time, seems to be hovering right behind him. It’s as if her job is is to be his handler and hustle him off stage when he goes off script and also so that he can’t turn and answer questions shouted at him by a fawning press. When Jake Tapper starts questioning why Biden hasn’t held a press conference (and in his heart he probably knows why but is in denial), it is getting obvious that our country is fronted by a figurehead for the first time since Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919 and Edith Wilson was running things while being the “President whisperer”.
Gahrie said...My bet is that Biden will be wearing an earpiece. The question is...who's on the other end?
Imagine Biden saying out loud "OK, now tell them this... Wait! Don't say that out loud! Stop repeating exactly what I say, you idiot!"
>>
It wouldn't surprise me if he will wear an earpiece.
However, you err in assuming the person on the other end doesn't have the reporters' questions (and "Biden's" answers) already printed out in front of him to recite in Joe's ear.
@Althouse, you had your chance to vote for a sentient being last November and you blew it. Now you’re going to spend 3 1/2 years bitching about this administration, only to subject whoever the GOP nominee in 2024 to a microscope looking for something —anything! — you can use to say you can’t possibly vote for that person. You will not, however, subject the Democrat to the same close analysis. It’s been your game since I stumbled across your blog back before the 2008 election, and if you live to 100 it will be your foolish game in the elections of 2024, 2028, 2032, 2036, 2040, 2044, and 2048.
Acres of sludge.
It;s the WaPoo WaPooping. Again.
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