NBC News Cuts Away as Biden Hit with Tough Questions during Press Conference
Establishment media shields Biden
© press
Joe Biden’s news conference, which NBC News's “Special Report was covering,” was abruptly cut short as reporters started asking some tough questions.
NBC News abruptly cut away as Biden began taking questions.
Biden concluded his statement, saying:
“And I’ll keep you informed every day as we move forward."
"May God protect our troops and our diplomats who are serving in harm’s way.
"I’ll take a few questions. Darlene, from the Associated Press.”
White House reporter for The Associated Press, Darlene Superville, asked:
“Mr. President: we’re nine days away from the August 31 deadline.
"Will you extend that deadline, or what is your thought process on extending the evacuation operation?"
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NBC News’ Kate Snow appeared to nod as seemed to be taking instruction given in her earphone, then cut in, “All right.
"We’ve been listening to President Biden with dual challenges on a Sunday talking about Tropical Storm Henri, all the preparations being made, also talking about Afghanistan.
"Let’s get right to Monica Alba, who’s at the White House.”
WATCH:
What are they worried about? As Biden begins to take questions, NBC News cuts away from the press conference. pic.twitter.com/F26hpjaVdg
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 22, 2021
Director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters, Tim Graham, highlighted that Biden’s staff reportedly hasn’t wanted him to take questions:
Earlier this year, WH press secretary Jen Psaki admitted Biden “takes questions nearly every day he’s out from the press.
"That is not something we recommend.
"In fact, a lot of times, we say, ‘Don’t take questions.’”
Last week, investigative journalist Lara Logan dared the establishment media to ask Biden questions that had been reluctant to ask.
She stated:
“U.S. media needs to ask why U.S./Intel/NSA allowed sensitive mil equipment to be transported to Pakistan w/o doing anything?
"Why is the Biden admin not acknowledging the Afghan govt – VP Amrullah Saleh hasn’t surrendered, announced he’s acting Pres under constitution U.S. helped draft.”
© press
Last week, Biden abruptly left the press conference without taking a single question from reporters.
WATCH:
Biden walks away from the podium after talking about vaccines and mask mandates for 15 minutes.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 18, 2021
Not a single question.
No mention of the crisis in Afghanistan.
Shameful. pic.twitter.com/Achkeef5US
According to Zogby Analytics conducted May 26-27, two-thirds of likely U.S. voters believed the media is “protecting President Biden.”
The Pew Research Center compared how the media compared Biden’s first days in office to how they covered President Trump over the same period.
They wrote:
When it comes to the tone of coverage, both new administrations received more negative assessments than positive assessments of their activities. But while the percentage of Biden stories with an overall negative assessment (32%) modestly outnumbered the share with positive assessments (23%), stories with negative assessments of Trump outnumbered those with positive assessments by four-to-one (44% to 11%).
Media critic William A. Jacobson told Fox News:
“Mainstream liberal media coverage of the Biden administration’s first 100 days is only slightly more harsh than the media coverage of the last 100 days of the Biden campaign,” adding, ”The coverage is overwhelmingly favorable, polite, and gentle.”
Last week, Biden's communications director, Kate Bedingfield, claimed he "never shies away from taking questions."
"The president never shies away from taking questions," Bedingfield claimed.
"I'll let him make a decision if he is going to take questions this afternoon, but you saw he just did a full sit-down interview on this since yesterday, so he is always willing to take questions."
