News/Commentary

WH slammed for sending ‘marching orders’ to its media minions, urges ‘scrutiny’ on impeachment

September 14, 2023 | | Print Article

Backlash is swiftly growing against the White House’s Orwellian letter demanding the media call out the GOP’s impeachment efforts against President Joe Biden.

As previously reported, this week the White House sent letters to CNN, The New York Times, CBS, the Associated Press and other outlets demanding they “ramp up” their “scrutiny” and bashing of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry.

“Covering impeachment as a process story – Republicans say X, but the White House says Y – is a disservice to the American public who relies on the independent press to hold those in power accountable,” White House Counsel’s Office spokesperson Ian Sams wrote in the letter.

“And in the modern media environment, where every day liars and hucksters peddle disinformation and lies everywhere from Facebook to Fox, process stories that fail to unpack the illegitimacy of the claims on which House Republicans are basing all their actions only serve to generate confusion, put false premises in people’s feeds, and obscure the truth,” he added.

In other words, it’s contingent for the media to act as adversaries to the Republican Party instead of conducting actual, both-sided journalism.

Backlash to the letter has been swift.

“Has the White House gotten so bold that they are brazenly telling the media to predetermine their coverage? As a former reporter, this is outrageous. Republicans will follow the facts wherever they will lead. And the media should report the facts without bias,” Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican, tweeted.

Look:

GOP Oversight communications director Jessica Collins also bashed the letter, slamming the White House for “threatening to the media to stop reporting” the truth.

Look:

Meanwhile, legal scholar Jonathan Turley wrote a column arguing that the letter is a blatant “call for media to tailor the coverage to push the position of the White House” that the impeachment inquiry is nothing but nonsense.

He also slammed the White House Counsel’s Office for involving itself in political matters.

“Once again, what is most disturbing is that the White House shows no reluctance or concern in making such an open pitch to the press. There is a sense of license in using the media as an extension of the White House press push. The fact that this is a representative of the White House counsel’s office is particularly chilling. This is not the press office but the counsel for the President calling on media to form a unified front against the Republicans and the impeachment inquiry,” he wrote.

“The letter is an alarming erosion of separation of the White House Counsel’s office from the Biden defense team. It also confirms an active and aggressive role of White House officials in swatting down allegations against the President. While the staff obviously is not expected to be neutral on impeachment, there is a careful line that past White House counsels have walked between fulfilling their duties to the office as opposed to the officeholder,” he added.

That said, not everybody views the letter as a bad thing.

Seth Mandel of the Washington Examiner noted that the letter will make it easier to determine which media outlets are nothing more than propagandists for the Biden regime.

“I actually think posting this is helpful, because this is the WH telling reporters how to report on the WH and it makes for an easy checklist to see which ones are simply following explicit instructions,” he explained.

This is true, though in fairness, they will likely ALL — except for Fox News — follow the administration’s orders. In fact, most outlets already have by writing reports falsely claiming Republicans have no evidence of wrongdoing by the president …

Vivek Saxena
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