The White House Press Corps has its collective panties bunched up again; this time the cause of their angst is White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany refusal to kowtow to them and her open disdain for their contemptible behavior.
Poor ABC News correspondent Jon Karl, who’s the current head of the WHPC wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post, complaining that she doesn’t run the daily press briefings in accordance with his preferences in the right way.
The job is to inform the public: to be an intermediary between the president and a press corps the public relies on for information….
Of course, the press isn’t the least bit arrogant or self-important. They’re the gateway to what we know; we rely on them. No, we don’t. Usually, we bypass the press and go straight to the sources—real sources, not those the press masquerades as “officials” or “anonymous sources.”
Denying reality….
Of course, there can’t possibly be differing interpretations of events. McEnany must be denying reality.
Karl specifically pointed to derisive statements McEnany made about Seattle’s so-called autonomous zone, arguing she wrongly implied that President Trump liberated the city from its occupation.
Except that McEnany did no such thing, neither did Trump. She merely reported what he said—that he’d act if they didn’t, followed by their acting, followed by Trump’s bragging about having successfully prodded them. Look who’s really denying reality.
And
he [Karl] accused her of implying in a July 6 briefing that reporters didn’t care about shootings in New York….
An accurate implication, since the press corps, in that briefing, displayed exactly zero interest in the New York shootings. Here’s how McEnany closed that briefing:
I was asked probably 12 questions about the Confederate flag. This president is focused on action, and I’m a little dismayed that I didn’t receive one question on the deaths that we got in this country this weekend. I didn’t receive one question about New York City shootings doubling for the third straight week.
The lack of questions regarding that surge—still surging—of murders and what might the President think or do or plan to do about them—in favor or the press’ manufactured spat over the NASCAR and Confederate Flag beef—is a pretty strong indication of the press’ lack of interest in those murders.
How dare this person object to press misbehaviors? Doesn’t she know the press is above reproach?