\n\n“While he\u2019s answered questions from reporters in informal settings numerous times and held a CNN town hall, Biden has now gone 50 days without holding a formal news conference. It\u2019d be ideal for him to do one, but there are many good reasons he hasn\u2019t yet \u2014 the urgent public health and economic crises he inherited, a pandemic that complicates logistics, and the legacy former President Donald Trump left him of presidential news conferences doubling as hate spectacles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, it\u2019s starting to aggravate members of the press corps<\/a>, with the president of the White House Correspondents Association telling Vanity Fair<\/a> that full press conferences are \u201ccritical to informing the American people and holding an administration accountable.\u201d And the Washington Post editorial board wrote that \u201cit\u2019s past time for Biden to hold a news conference<\/a>\u201d \u2014 even while acknowledging that more press availability didn\u2019t equal more truth or transparency with the previous president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The careful wording of the Post\u2019s editorial board exemplifies how journalists are having to reevaluate relationships to power and what it means to do adversarial journalism now that the White House isn\u2019t the home of a habitual liar who routinely made reporters objects of hate, even while he was accessible to them with regular helicopter-side press availabilities<\/a> and coronavirus press briefings that are best remembered for Trump floating the idea of disinfectant as a cure for Covid-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But on the cable network that benefited most from the Trump presidency, all of that nuance is lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fox News has done its best in recent days to blow up the fact Biden hasn\u2019t yet had a formal news conference into a major scandal, complete with special graphics<\/a> and coverage across shows suggesting Biden is hiding something.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “While it\u2019s true that Biden has broken from modern precedent in not holding a news conference sometime in his first month in office, press secretary Jen Psaki answers questions from reporters every weekday during briefings that illustrate one of the reasons Biden might not be in a rush to do one himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fox News\u2019s Peter Doocy has distinguished himself during Psaki\u2019s briefings by regularly asking loaded, gotcha-style questions on topics ranging from the national anthem<\/a> to the Olympics<\/a> to energy policy<\/a> to school reopenings.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n