After making a little fun of himself and the media – and roasting Donald Trump – President Biden closed his speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday with “genuine thanks to the free press” for reporting “truth over lies,” which he called “my definition of patriotism and heroism.”
He said that “you, the free press, play a critical role in making sure the American people have the information they need to make an informed decision.”
And then he asked the people in the room to do a better job of it:
I’m sincerely not asking of you to take sides but asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment; move past the horserace numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics; and focus on what’s actually at stake. I think, in your hearts, you know what’s at stake. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Every single one of us has roles to play — a serious role to play in making sure democracy endures — American democracy. I have my role, but, with all due respect, so do you.
In the age of disinformation, credible information that people can trust is more important than ever. And that makes you — and I mean this from the bottom of my heart — it makes you more important than ever.
His remarks came a few days after a Politico story by Eli Stokols described the Biden White House’s frustrations with New York Times coverage in particular.
The story went viral on account of the one-anonymous-source assertion that publisher A.G. Sulzberger is demanding critical stories of Biden because he’s furious that Biden has not agreed to a sit-down interview with his reporters.
I actually think Sulzberger is a tad more subtle than that. But as I wrote last month, he definitely establishes the ground rules at the Times, and that includes two strong biases: toward criticism of Biden in order not to be seen as taking sides; and against being alarmist about the potential loss of democracy in order not to be seen as shrill.
Indeed, what I found most significant about the Politico story were its specific criticisms of Times political coverage.
Members of Biden’s press team “see the Times falling short in a make-or-break moment for American democracy, stubbornly refusing to adjust its coverage as it strives for the appearance of impartial neutrality, often blurring the asymmetries between former President Donald Trump and Biden when it comes to their perceived flaws and vastly different commitments to democratic principles,” Stokols wrote.
The Times’s “unrelenting focus on Biden’s advanced age and his low numbers in the NYT’s approval poll have frustrated the president and top aides to no end. Beyond that, they bemoan the newspaper’s penchant for sweepy comparisons, analytical reporter memos — referred to in the Biden press shop as ‘opinion pieces’ or ‘diary entries’ — and story frames that seem consistently skeptical.”
Staffers “viewed the matter as bigger than their or even Biden’s self-interest, expressing aggravation over the Times’ determination to maintain its neutral voice of God approach to an election that, in their view, is a matter of democracy’s survival,” Stokols wrote.
I am not normally a fan of presidents playing the role of media critics, and I take their critiques with a huge grain of salt.
But in this case, I have only one thing to say: Biden and his team have it exactly right.
It’s past time for a course correction at the Times and elsewhere. The stakes, as Biden said, couldn’t be higher.