Once upon a time, journalists in the media were in a fever about the Trump White House drastically reducing press access by cutting the number of briefings, by moving the briefing off-site, or by boxing out “mainstream” outlets in favor of (gasp!) Fox News.
That time was basically every single day from the election in 2016 to about a month ago, at which point President Trump began appearing and answering questions before reporters almost daily for more than an hour each time.
Now, for whatever reason, journalists would rather the president stay hidden.
A normal person would think to themselves that during a pandemic, the public deserves to hear as much from elected officials as possible. And if it’s the president of the United States, all the better.
New York Times editorial board member Michelle Cottle is not a normal person. She wrote Tuesday that because she doesn’t like what Trump has said at the briefings, “it falls to the media to serve the public interest by no longer airing his briefings live.”
Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivan has also called on news channels to stop airing the briefings. CNN’s Don Lemon said he wants at least his channel to no longer do it as well.
All of their complaints are the same: The president lies; the president is offering false hope; the president is mean.
But none of those complaints are genuine. The real complaint is that the briefings haven’t been politically damaging for Trump in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. If anything, they’ve helped him in assuring the public that the administration is fighting it.
The RealClearPolitics polling average has Trump as of this moment at a 46% approval rating, which is the higher end of what he usually sees. Other polls show a plurality of voters, above 45%, approving of the way the administration has handled the coronavirus response.
True, Trump is loath to acknowledge that he has not delivered an immaculate performance in managing the biggest crisis of his presidency. The administration sent mixed messages about how and when the country should prepare for the number of coming infections and deaths. The president himself was negligent in confidently predicting that the U.S. would go mostly untouched by the virus. And the administration as a whole did not take steps in advance to ready the nation for an adequate response to a new, easily spread respiratory disease that would potentially wipe out a million or more people here.
We all know that without having to hear a billion questions about whether Trump will “take responsibility.” If any part of the briefings are pointless, it’s that. Normal people are far more concerned with whether the death rate is seeing a reduction. They want to know if there has been progress on any new treatments (a subject that the media really can’t get a handle on).
Trump is granting the press more access at the precise moment that it’s needed, and now, journalists are complaining that it’s too much and, in fact, not serving the public interest.
They’re not interested in whether the briefings are benefiting the public. They’re worried that briefings are useful for the president.
