Charlotte, NC — Joe Biden’s transition team has reportedly disabled the Zoom chat function for their virtual press conferences after the journalists they invited onto the calls began complaining about the group’s lack of transparency.
Reporters on the call became increasingly “frustrated” with the Biden team — and Joe Biden himself — because the team appeared to have a group of favored journalists who were always called on to ask softball type questions during these virtual press conferences.
The “New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, PBS and Politico” were able to ask questions of the Biden team at nearly every press conference, while other legacy media outlets like The Associated Press were shut out.
“Hey guys, there tons of folks looking to ask questions and since this is being done once a week, could we PLEASE go longer or at least hold more frequent briefings,” a reporter from the Daily Beast said in the chat of a Zoom press conference held last week.
“Any chance you can take a few more questions? There are a lot of folks here with questions,” Zeke Miller from The Associated Press added.
“Is there a point in saying we want to ask questions if you only call on the same small group every week?” another asked.
Biden’s team rarely answered an unexpected question, particularly the ongoing Department of Justice investigation into Joe’s son Hunter’s finances and foreign dealings. Biden has yet to answer questions on Hunter’s issues in any substantive way since the NY Post broke the story before the election. Biden has even refused to answer these questions from late-night television hosts.
The Biden transition team responds to these questions stating: “President-elect Biden is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger.”
After reporters complained in public about the situation, though, the Biden team didn’t take more questions; they simply shut down the chat, according to at least one reporter who was on the most recent virtual press conference Zoom.
“The Biden transition team appears to have disabled the public chat function on its transition zoom calls, a place where I and others had been routinely complaining to them to take more questions,” incoming Politico editor Sam Stein said on Twitter, per Fox News.
So, Biden team, if you’re on Twitter while doing the Zoom…. Be sure to take a lot of questions. https://t.co/YTlz9VPDJ3
— Sam Stein (@samstein) December 30, 2020
The transition team refused to comment on the situation, according to Fox, but the team did say last month that they value “transparency” and believe the press’s job is to hold Biden “accountable” during his tenure.
“He also believes, though, that it’s the media’s job to hold him accountable,” a spokesperson said. “He’s there to do the people’s work and he welcomes that relationship. He welcomes their role, the media’s role in our democracy and I think it will be, frankly, the polar opposite of what we’ve seen over the last four years…I think you’ll see a huge change in the culture in the way this White House treats the media.”
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