"Influencers have been given exclusive tours of the White House.... They’ve been wined and dined at lavish parties in New York and at State of the Union watch parties..."

"... in the White House. And they’ve been promised extraordinary access to party officials at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, where for the first time ever they’ll be given a special room of their own, outfitted with quiet spaces for making videos. At least one has been offered an interview with the president at the convention, but said he was asked not to bring up Gaza. Priorities USA, a super PAC supporting Mr. Biden’s campaign, has pledged to spend at least $1 million on influencers, some of whom will be paid to share talking points online...."

From "Don’t Forget to Like, Subscribe and Vote: Biden’s Rocky Influencer Courtship/The Biden campaign is trying to work its way into social media feeds. But the young, left-leaning voices that control the conversation aren’t making it easy" (NYT).

That's written by Ken Bensinger, who, we're told, "covers right wing media and national political campaigns for The Times." This article really is part of keeping track of "right wing media." It reveals that the Biden campaign is far behind Trump, caught flat-footed as "Mr. Trump’s supporters produce an endless stream of memes, videos and adoring posts — all essentially free advertising — that reach an increasingly crucial slice of voters." That internal link goes to a piece Bensinger wrote last December: "Inside the Troll Army Waging Trump’s Online Campaign/A team of meme-makers has been flooding social media with pro-Trump posts riddled with sexist and racist tropes. Donald Trump is cheering them on." Notice, it's nefarious and wrong when Trump supporters do whatever it is people do on line, but it seems that Biden supporters desperately wish they had that sort of thing going for them too. 

Back to today's article:

One event took place last month at the Eaton, a four-star hotel in the heart of Washington. Way to Win, Future Forward, Mr. Biden's primary super PAC, and the Hub Project, another progressive group, hosted about 140 influencers to Washington for a three-day event called Trending Up. Attendees were feted with a rooftop sushi spread, an open bar and a tour of the Capitol.

Can you co-opt influencers so easily?  

But the mood, at least for some, soured after about a dozen attendees received surprise emails inviting them to the White House, setting off weeks of contentious accusations online that they and other pro-Biden creators were “feds” paid to shill for Mr. Biden.

"Feds" — that's hilarious. 

“The inherent mistrust of authority was present at the whole conference,” said Sean Szolek-VanValkenburgh, who has 1.6 million followers on TikTok.... Mx. Szolek-VanValkenburgh did not receive an invitation but said they would not have accepted if they had....

Ha ha. This takes me back to September 13, 2006:

Bill Clinton, lunching with the bloggers.

Come on, you'd fly to New York City, to eat "southern chicken" with Bill Clinton and pose for a group photo, wouldn't you? And then you'd go home and blog about how he's good on your issues and how you're totally impressed, right? And, omigosh, "He's got beautiful blue eyes."

Hey, this blogger wrangling... it's easy when you've got blue eyes and chicken....

Well, it didn't work out for Hillary back then, but at least it was new. It's 2 decades later now, and you'd think these well-paid politicos, who con donors out of millions, would know how to wrangle social-media content providers by now. But, in fact, the social-media folk are ahead of them, and even rooftop sushi won't buy them. Back in 2006, you could get some top-notch bloggers to array themselves appreciatively for mere "southern chicken."