Biden’s media coverage under scrutiny amid crises
‘MediaBuzz’ host Howard Kurtz analyzes the increase in mainstream media’s critical reporting.
It has been over a week since White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain has retweeted one of his most favorite journalists, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin.
Over the course of the Biden presidency, observers noticed how Klain, who is hyperactive on Twitter, has become known for retweeting journalists offering favorable coverage of the administration. Among those is Rubin, a once outspoken conservative writer and harsh critic of President Obama who has since morphed into one of President Biden's biggest cheerleaders.
The coziness between the columnist and the White House became so glaring that Politico even ran a report about their lovefest.
However, ever since the Politico report, Klain has refrained from retweeting or liking any of Rubin's tweets or columns.
In fact, the last time Klain retweeted Rubin was on Sept. 13, which was three days before Politico published its findings. This marks a running total of ten days without visible Klain-Rubin activity.
The Sept. 13 tweet promoted a column Rubin had written supporting the Biden administration's crackdown on businesses in order to boost vaccinations. The previous retweet took place on Sept. 10.
During the retweet drought, Rubin defended Biden's foreign policy following the awkward spat that took place with France, trashed GOP lawmakers amid the Capitol Hill debate overspending, and slammed the Supreme Court on not quashing Texas' abortion law.
(Twitter)
According to Politico, Klain had "retweeted or @ mentioned Rubin more than three dozen times since mid-May" and that her columns were promoted by the White House press team, the VP's office, the State Department and the DNC.
However, not all of Biden's allies were on board to share Rubin's work.
"The White House has encouraged outside allies to share some of Rubin’s articles online. One told West Wing Playbook that they declined to do so because they thought it was just too embarrassing to earnestly share a Rubin column, given her history as a conservative and perceived tendency to pander to the administration," Politico reported.
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One Washington Post employee told Politico "some people in the newsroom are increasingly frustrated that Rubin is parroting the administration's critiques of the media, which they believe emboldens the administration to push back on journalists even further" while two others said they "try to ignore her or don’t read her columns."
The Politico report went viral and sparked a fiery debate after the West Wing Playbook published Rubin's response she declared in the email was "OFF THE RECORD" despite Politico never making that agreement.
The columnist blasted Politico for running a "hit piece on a prominent woman" and slammed the "clickbait style of coverage" from a "misogynistic publication."
(Getty Images)
Rubin, an MSNBC contributor, was a prominent "NeverTrump" conservative ever since Donald Trump entered politics. It wasn't until September 2020 that she removed her "conservative" label from her Twitter bio, declaring at the time, "There is no conservative movement or party today."
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During the Trump era, Rubin was best known for flip-flopping on various positions she previously held as a conservative-sounding writer. She also claimed she cried "15, 20" times while watching the Democratic National Convention last year.
Last spring, Rubin shattered the glass ceiling, becoming the first woman and second person ever to win the viral "Liberal Hack Tournament."