White House Reporters Privately Rejoice at Biden’s Exit

Columbia Journalism Review: “The return of Donald Trump to the White House has prompted predictable worries among many DC-based reporters about how his administration might seek to control and intimidate the press. But for a surprising number of people on the daily White House beat, that concern is mixed with another, more privately expressed emotion: relief at finally being rid of the Joe Biden press operation.”

Said one White House print reporter:  “I think it’s important for people to understand the context, that we’re coming out of four years of Biden and things haven’t been great. There’ve been fewer eyeballs on the press briefings and less attention than under Trump, so people just don’t understand some of the very frustrating things that we’ve dealt with and that we hope are going to be rolled back.”

“Among those frustrations: the Biden press office largely kept reporters at a remove from the president, who had agreed to far fewer formal interviews than any president before him.”