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Journalists Praising Psaki Should Remember: Spin Doctors Are Not on Your Side - FAIR

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&nbsp;CNN‘s Brian Seltzer (Reliable Sources, ) talks to three former press secretaries about how normal Jen Psaki is.One arena of US executive power that the media establishment is glad to have return to its pre-Trump mode is White House press relations, embodied in Joe Biden press secretary Jen Psaki. Former President Donald Trump’s press secretaries, like Sean Spicer with his iffy Holocaust history (Vox, ) and mendacious Kayleigh McEnany (Vanity Fair, ), turned any given White House press conference into a fever dream. Any spokesperson for the new administration might seem like a bit of fresh air after such lunacy. But let’s be cautious.There has certainly been corporate media fanfare over what journalists call a return to normal in White House press conferences with Psaki (CNN’s Reliable Sources, ; New York Times, ; Independent, ). In a friendly interview, Rachel Maddow (MSNBC, ) told Psaki: “The presentation that we are hearing from you in the briefing room…. I feel like it’s too nice,” which elicited a laugh from Psaki. Maddow said, “I believe you are telling the truth,” a validation of Psaki’s promise to bring “transparency and truth” back to executive briefings (Daily Mail, ).Washingtonian () celebrates Psaki’s “knack for swatting away questions she doesn’t like.”As Vogue () framed it, “It’s clear than her largely nonconfrontational style in the press briefing room is making an impact.” But at the same time, Psaki has “proved skilled at the art of the pushback—so far doing it calmly and respectfully.”With glee, Washingtonian () pointed out Psaki’s online fans have created the phase “Psaki bomb,” a reference to her “ability to subtly smack down questions she finds frivolous.” Some of those questions—on topics ranging from the second Trump impeachment to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Biden’s masking lapses to the GameStop stock saga—may or may not be trivial, but it’s disconcerting to see journalists celebrating the use of executive power to shut down journalistic inquisitiveness.Psaki is a seasoned Democratic Party press operative. As the Center for Responsive Politics , she worked for various high-level Democrats before joining Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign as a deputy press secretary. She rose quickly and worked in the White House after Obama’s victory.AP‘s Mike Lee’s response (Democracy Now!, ) to Psaki’s claim that the US has a “longstanding” policy of not supporting coups: “Sorry. The US has—whoa, whoa, whoa—the US has a long-standing practice of not promoting—what did you say?”Reporters would be well served by a trip down memory lane, particularly Psaki’s tenure as State Department spokesperson and her confrontations with AP diplomatic correspondent . Among the most egregious claims she made in press briefings was, in reference to Venezuela (Democracy Now!, ), “As a matter of longstanding policy, the United States does not support political transitions by non-constitutional means.” As Lee pointed out, this is clearly untrue: In Latin America alone, the US has successfully overthrown governments between 1898 and 1994. In true Monroe Doctrine fashion, Psaki justified sanctions against Venezuela as an effort to “persuade” its socialist government to “change their behavior” (Al Jazeera, ).In the Mideast, she refused to declare the military overthrow of democratically elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to be a coup: “We have determined that we do not need to make a determination.” (Washington Free Beacon, ). She was caught on a hot mic complaining that the department’s line on the acquittal of Egyptian ex-strongman Hosni Mubarak was “ridiculous” (RT, ) after taking heat from Lee and other reporters on the subject. Lee had called Psaki out for refusing to take a position on a gross miscarriage of justice in a country central to US foreign policy in the Middle East.Lee also pushed her on her department’s failure to commit to general transparency (Real Clear Politics, ). Other fiery confrontations made headlines (Washington Post, ).For all the calm Psaki is bringing into the White House press room after a four-year circus, as State Department spokesperson it was her job to justify the most imperial aspects of the Obama administration’s foreign policy. Now she’s standing between the press and a president who previously served in that same administration as second-in-command.The fawning coverage of Psaki’s performance suggests some in the press have forgotten that press secretaries at the highest levels of government are not friends of free discourse. They are meant to deflect questions and use ambiguity to provide quotable snippets to fill newspaper pages, but that don’t actually inform the public about the inner workings of the government. Whether they serve a president, a governor or a mayor, executive press secretaries are not servants of the press or the public. Instead, they serve to protect their employer from bad news and to promote their employer’s initiatives in a positive light. Reporters, in a press secretary’s eyes, are either to be manipulated or deceived. “Spin doctor” is not meant to be a compliment.“The Treasury Secretary is a world-renowned expert on the economy,” Psaki told a reporter (RealClear Politics, ). “It should not be a surprise to anyone that she was paid to give her expert advice before she came into office.” But shouldn’t it be surprising that Janet Yellen has accepted more than $7 million from Wall Street and other large corporations in the past two years (Politico, )?To illustrate the problem: Psaki recently batted down a question about whether Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen taking more than $800,000 in speaking fees from Citadel, the trading firm that in the GameStop stock spike, posed a possible conflict of interest in her investigation of the market situation. Psaki shot it down, saying that Yellen is an “expert on the economy,” so it “should not be a surprise” that she was highly paid for her advice in the past (Real Clear Politics, ). No one doubts that Yellen knows about economics; the question is whether she can be an honest investigator in this particular instance. By highlighting her expertise, Psaki insinuated that the asker was questioning her expert knowledge, when what was at issue was fairness and transparency.It should not be considered cool or funny that Psaki bats down questions from the press, who are supposed to be a check on the government. If anything, the absurdity of the Trump press conferences should have taught the press to be constantly skeptical of those at the podium, rather than treat them as a chummy ally who has official state power. Rather than making jokes about “Psaki bombs,” Washington reporters would be better off taking their cues from reporters like Lee, and keep her on her toes from now until her last day on the job.FAIR’s work is sustained by our generous contributors, who allow us to remain independent. today to be a part of this important mission.You can also support FAIR on Patreon! Click the button below!The devil you knowAnd likeJournalists fawning praise for Psaki are what my Irish father called arse licking, the aim being to “stay on the good side”, to retain access. It seems to me that the default position of Journalists at government briefings aught to be scepticism and dogged questioning, then to report REFUSAL to answer direct questions “circle back”.Jen Psaki, the first Valley Girl press secretary. Anyone else notice that she ends most of her statements with a higher pitch (reserved in English for questions – not statements)?If you haven’t, I’ll “circle back” with you on that.Excellent article. I saw that GameStop clip on Rising where Psaki sneeringly dismissed Yellen’s $800,000 so-called speaking fees (otherwise known as bribes.) She was flippant, arrogant, and just plain rude. But hey, elites always cover for one another. As the saying goes, “It’s an exclusive club, and you’re not a member.”Thank you for bringing up Psaki’s past performance as State Department spokesperson.Her exchanges with Matt Lee are a master class on how a real journalist should question a public official, but all that is straight down the memory hole for the MSM.(FYI: The photo caption incorrectly identifies him as “Mike Lee”.)Media fawning over the White House spokesperson would be problematic even if she were doing a great job; the fact that they’re doing it when anybody not in the bag can see Psaki’s performance embodies sheer cluelessness, lightly armored by sarcasm and peevishness, is a disgrace.FAIR’s 4-page, ad-free, newsletter publishes ten times a year bringing you the media analysis and activism that you won’t find anywhere else. Choose a print subscription, a digital PDF edition, or both together.FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. We expose neglected news stories and defend working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive group, we believe that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.Fairness &amp; Accuracy In Reporting124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201New York, NY 10001Tel: 212-633-6700We rely on your support to keep running. Please consider donating.This work is licensed under a License.

&nbsp;CNN‘s Brian Seltzer (Reliable Sources, ) talks to three former press secretaries about how normal Jen Psaki is.One arena of US executive power that the media establishment is glad to have return to its pre-Trump mode is White House press relations, embodied in Joe Biden press secretary Jen Psaki. Former President Donald Trump’s press secretaries, like Sean Spicer with his iffy Holocaust history (Vox, ) and mendacious Kayleigh McEnany (Vanity Fair, ), turned any given White House press conference into a fever dream. Any spokesperson for the new administration might seem like a bit of...

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Journalists Praising Psaki Should Remember: Spin Doctors Are Not on Your Side - FAIR

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