Immediately following President Biden’s first formal press conference of his presidency, leftist media cheerleaders went to work giving it rave reviews. The hackish reporters were particularly impressed that none of their colleagues bothered to ask about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, leading shills like NBC’s Chuck Todd to conclude that there were “not any negative questions to ask” on the topic.
“Chuck, what did we not hear that stood out to you?,” NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt asked Todd during the network’s special live coverage following the presser. The Meet the Press moderator proclaimed in part:
...the big takeaway is the fact that it goes back to COVID. It’s the only piece of news he intended to make, and he made it. There wasn’t a single question on it, which tells you one other thing, Lester. There’s clearly not any negative questions to ask. A press corps asks you about challenges, they don’t necessarily ask you about things that are going well. COVID’s going well right now for him.
During a CBS News special report, White House correspondent Weijia Jiang made an almost identical declaration:
I think one big takeaway that I had from this press conference is what we weren't talking about, and that was his response to the pandemic. And that’s because the entire time he's been in office, he has been messaging about what he’s been doing about the response, about the facts and figures that show, according to our very own CBS polling, that people are satisfied with how he’s doing. And, so, that is something he did not have to answer much about.
Over on MSNBC, Todd’s colleague Hallie Jackson was so pleased with his sycophantic claim that she eagerly repeated it to left-wing historian Michael Beschloss:
It did not escape notice, I think, Michael, that there were no questions on the coronavirus pandemic facing this country right now....Our colleague Chuck Todd made the point that oftentimes, and I know this from having been a former White House correspondent, you ask the President questions about things that are not going well. You ask the question about the challenges. What does it say to you about sort of where the American people are that that is how things went today and how the President is handling it?
Beschloss joined in the propaganda push: “It says, Hallie, that after the trauma of this last year with over half a million American dead, others dead around the world, we’re in a situation – who could have dreamt a year ago we would be in a situation where not one question asked about the pandemic?”
The liberal media are just amazed that their fellow liberal reporters don’t ask challenging questions about the pandemic and then conclude that must mean the Biden administration is doing a fantastic job.
How about asking when schools will reopen nationwide for in-person learning? How about asking when lockdowns will end and allow businesses like restaurants to return to full capacity and hopefully full employment? The questions are certainly there to be asked, pro-Biden journalists just decided not to ask them.
The live special coverage across media outlets did not have commercial breaks, but you can fight back against the complicit liberal press by contacting some of their biggest advertisers.
Here is a transcript of Todd’s March 25 post-presser commentary:
2:35 PM ET
(...)
LESTER HOLT: Let me go to NBC News political director and moderator of Meet the Press Chuck Todd. Chuck, what did we not hear that stood out to you?
CHUCK TODD: Well, look, a presidential press conference, the way they’re planned is, Presidents go in there, there’s intentional news they want to make, and the reporters are there to try to see if they can get unintentional news to be made. And I think in those two categories, when you look at it, it was clear that there was only one piece of news apparently the President intended to make – and that was to double the vaccination goal. He did that in his opening statement. Every other question, whether it was about immigration, whether it was about the filibuster, whether it was about China, whether it was about voting rights, it was, “I need time.” And he gave very similar answers as he’s given before. He’s – some of his answers are longer. He’s not as pugilistic, clearly, as his predecessor.
And there was one other thing that came across to me, Lester, I thought – that I think contributed to sort of the – to some stiltedness in the – he doesn’t know that press corps. And normally, after a campaign, a president is very familiar with their press corps because they’ve been traveling the country together and there’s been that familiar back and forth. There was none of that, due to COVID. And I that adds to the almost – there was at times – it’s surprising to me how unfamiliar he is with some of these reporters. And I say that and it’s simply because he’s unfamiliar because there hasn’t been many interactions between him [and the press], when he was both candidate and as president.
But look, I think, overall, to me, the big takeaway is the fact that it goes back to COVID. It’s the only piece of news he intended to make, and he made it. There wasn’t a single question on it, which tells you one other thing, Lester. There’s clearly not any negative questions to ask. A press corps asks you about challenges, they don’t necessarily ask you about things that are going well. COVID’s going well right now for him.
HOLT: Interesting observation. Alright, Chuck Todd, thank you.
(...)
