Posted on 02/12/2021 4:02:31 AM PST by Kaslin
It has been with some amusement that over the past four years we watched segments of the media to express outrage at the favoritism Fox News would show for the president. The unspoken, but recognized subtext was, ‘’They cannot do that - only WE can do that!’’ For anyone in the press to pretend that a connection between journalists and an administration was unprecedented it showed a desperate attempt at deflection away from what has been a long established relationship.
We are now getting details that the civil union between journalists and the Democrats has already been reestablished, and the brazen manner in which this is playing out displays all of the comfort being experienced between the two entities. This is a tale involving a number of publishing outlets, players directly connected to the administration, and all of the expected romance as administration officials massage the story to avoid the appearance of impropriety. It has all the sizzle of a discount Harlequin Romance with a lame attempt at a political intrigue subplot.
At Axios one of their reporters, Alexi McCammond, was the beat reporter during Joe Biden’s campaign. In the course of her duties she fell into a relationship with T.J. Ducklo, Biden’s campaign press secretary, who then became transition spokesman and is now the current Deputy Press Secretary. Once revealed, Axios quietly reassigned the reporter to a position with fewer conflicts of interest. McCammond now would cover progressives in Congress, and the vice president. So the outlet did not remove the conflict of interest, they merely lessened it.
Despite the blatant ethical problems McCammond still managed to report on things concerning the Biden camp. In December she was still filing stories about cabinet appointments in the administration, and involvements with Kamala Harris’ family in January. After the inaugural, McCammond was on an Axios podcast and speaking with praise about the new president and his unifying message. At this stage Axios never made disclosures about their reporter having a serious personal relationship with a top-ranked administration official.
Politico began asking direct questions about the questionable connection a few weeks ago, describing the relationship as an ‘’open secret’’ the outlet asked for comments from Axios about the pair. Axios responded with a tepid statement to excuse away any issues:
“Alexi disclosed her relationship with TJ to her editors in November and asked to be taken off of the Biden beat. We reassigned her to cover progressives in Congress, the progressive movement, and Vice President Kamala Harris. Alexi is a valued member of the Axios team, and we stand behind her and her coverage.”
At the same time Politico reached out to the White House for comment on the duo. This led to a not-very-curious dose of timing. After it was declared to the White House communications team that Politico was running their piece on Tuesday there suddenly appeared on Monday evening a glowing feature on the Ducklo-McCammond relationship in People Magazine. This served to both position the connection as normal and not an ethical problem as well as diffuse any controversy the Politico piece might deliver. The White House got in front of the story and normalized things, delivering a ‘’nothing to see here, it is old news’’ style of deflection.
The feature is a chiffon-rich pile of political froth, one that highlights the ’’boy-meets-girl’’ cuteness and only alludes to the professional conflict; People describes the impropriety with a dismissive, ’’there were some wrinkles.’’ Then the magazine dutifully erects all of the safeguard barriers to prevent others from looking too critically at the couple.
"McCammond, a rising star on her beat, has talked about the added dynamic of being a Black woman in an industry not historically welcoming to either. And, as a group, female reporters have long faced the misogynistic accusation they become inappropriately involved with male sources."
The article also goes at length about Ducklo fighting off a cancer diagnosis, so only cold-hearted souls would see a negative in all of this. Very good job, People. The White House approves. You established that now critiques of this couple could be framed as either racist, or sexist -- or even both! Great work on their behalf!
As People described the issue, ‘’They know news of their relationship will stir disapproval over the optics and the timing.’’ And as those in the D.C. media universe know as well, the best way to combat these negative connotations is to deliver contrary optics. And then the next stage kicks in -- you ignore the problem entirely.
I stopped watching Fox at all during the Obama Administration. For me, Fox was not sufficiently Conservative and that was true a long time ago. And I think at this point they are just Liberal. They never liked Trump at all. To speak of "favoritism" just seems dishonest.
....The difference between Bidens Cancel Culture/News is the difference between Intelligence and Stupidity.
The annual Washington Press dinner, that President Trump shunned, will be quite the event this year. The media believe they closed the deal on Biden’s steal and will turn the event into an orgy of self-congratulation. I foresee the Federal government gifting billions to bail out failing media empires, something we have already seen in Canada. The media is effectively the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.
The watchdog media turns from attack dog media(Pubs) to lap dog media(Dems) on a dime.
The nonstop tongue baths are unwatchable.
Absolutely no questions about the hard drive...but lots of questions about his favorite ice cream. And that’s fitting in a way because we already know that Bella Pelosi’s favorite ice cream costs $15 a pint and is stored in a $25,000 freezer.
biden will be given credit for President Trump’s successful implementations and will blame him for his (biden’s) own failed ideas.
The MSN will not blink!
I don't watch as much FOX News anymore than I used to, but there are certain programs I watch. For example I watch the first two hours of FOX and Friends, then I might check out The Five at 4pm and it depends on who they have as the liberal. Juan Williams doesn't bother me, I just ignore him, but I mute Whorealdo if they have him on, as I can't stand him.
FOX News has made some program changes. One is FOX NEWS Prime Time which airs Monday through Friday on 6pm central. They have the same host for the five days. The current host is Mark Steyn. The other host were Maria Bartimoro, Trey Gowdy, and Brian Kilmeade.
The program is quite interesting and I suggest you check it out.
I watch of course Tucker Carlson and will keep on watching it.
Some times I do watch Hannity but because out of habit I get early up in the morning, I fall asleep during the show, so I miss most of it.
I’ll be darned if I watch that.
I’m not so sure about that. The media may have “outlived their usefulness”. Biden being a self-proclaimed dictator, you know what happens to those that outlive their usefulness...
It is an extreme misnomer to call professional propagandists “the press.”
My advice to the press and groper: get a room!
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