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Weekly reads from CJR for January 20, 2022

Hunter Walker on White House briefings

A year ago today, Joe Biden was inaugurated as president of the United States. Two weeks removed from the insurrection that capped four exhausting years of the Trump presidency, the press had reasons to hope for a return to normal. “The virtue of ‘normalcy,’ however,” Hunter Walker wrote for our Fall magazine, “depends on the vantage of the beholder.” Whereas the Trump years saw the riddance of daily press conferences––and a “barrage of lies” when they happened—this Biden year, so far, has seen its stultification. “Biden’s highly professional press shop makes it harder for the media to penetrate the depths of the White House—internal debates, developing ideas—and to locate pressure points that can take things off script,” Walker writes.

The White House briefings serve different purposes to different kinds of journalists. “Correspondents in the traditional mold,” Walker writes, “care more about being in the room to get sound bites on top-line news.” Other reporters have their own stories to pursue, and a single question on an approved topic does little to advance that. But as Shirish Dáte, a White House correspondent with HuffPost, reminded Walker: “While we beat reporters may not think the briefings are that important, the rest of the world watches it.

On the whole, the combativeness that characterized the Trump-era briefings has given way to Biden-era cordiality. But, Walker writes, “For me and more conventional outlets alike, it’s crucial to recognize that we can only deliver on behalf of the public if we’re forcefully challenging the White House.” ––Savannah Jacobson, story editor


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