More Screaming in the White House Briefing Room
22nd March 2023
The White House press corps is a microcosm of the national media. It is overwhelmingly liberal, stuffed with Biden voters. So it was downright weird when former press secretary Jen Psaki told the Los Angeles Times she sometimes thought “I am an orderly in an insane asylum.”
The briefing room is usually a tank of hungry sharks for a Republican press secretary, and a classroom full of teacher’s pets for a Democrat press secretary. The news cycle has to be pretty negative for reporters to sound hostile to Biden’s press aides.
On March 20, black reporter Simon Ateba from an obscure website called “Today News Africa” began screaming at the very top of the briefing that current press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was not calling on him so he could ask his questions. Other reporters joined the fight, insisting Ateba press his complaints off camera.
Ateba has obviously internalized the obvious fact that black people are entitled to act in ways that would get non-black people sat on.