Until last weekend, President Joe Biden hadn’t given an interview to an American news network in seven months, or some 223 days. Think about that. We literally have a United States president who is not answerable to the public, and who spends his days hiding behind his handlers, Teleprompters, cheat sheets, and wife Jill.
He did finally deign to appear on CBS News 60 Minutes on Sunday, and he dropped enough news to keep RedState reporters working overtime. Yours truly reported how Biden warned Putin not to use nukes in the Ukraine war; streiff reported how the president pledged to defend Taiwan even though that is not the official U.S. position; Nick Arama told us how Joe bragged that he’d been busy depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and then dismissed any concerns about the business dealings of his troubled son Hunter; Bonchie wrote about Joe’s brushing off skyrocketing inflation before he suddenly declared that COVID is over…
Phew. The list goes on.
No wonder he waits seven months between appearances; his handlers need weeks for clean-up duty as they try to walk back or clarify half of what he said. To be fair, he was reasonably cogent and seemed of sound mind. We can be sure if there were any senior moments, though, CBS would have edited them out.
Lost in all the news though is the performance of our nation’s media. Many consider Biden Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s briefings to be an absolute joke, as she is unable to answer many questions and is rarely pressed by any other White House correspondent other than Fox’ Peter Doocy.
CBS News anchor Scott Pelley, you have a one-on-one interview with the unpopular, divisive president of the United States–what do you do? You fall flat on your face by asking softball questions and neglecting to follow up on any of Biden’s questionable claims.
In short, you failed.
NewsBusters analyst Kevin Tober wrote about the interview:
From the very start, it was clear why Biden chose Pelley to conduct his first sit-down interview in months. Right out of the gate and until the last minute, Pelley gushed and sucked up to Biden in embarrassing fashion…
This kind of media praise would make state-controlled media in North Korea blush. Pelley would make a terrific ‘news anchor’ at a North Korean or Chinese state media outlet.
Whoa, tell us how you really feel. Outkick founder Clay Travis meanwhile pointed out that it’s interesting that COVID is “over,” because wasn’t it just five minutes ago that Biden used the pandemic “crisis” to forgive student loan debt?
Fox Across America host Jimmy Failla wasn’t impressed either:
I believe interviewers should be respectful to presidents, but not groveling. Whether or not you agree with that depiction of Pelley, one thing is indisputable: he asked nothing about one of the most festering crises in our country: the border. To interview the chief executive and not bring this up is simply journalistic malpractice. While Jim Acosta was a loathsome reporter during the Trump years, he at least asked questions, as did the screeching Sam Donaldson back in the day. Except for the aforementioned Peter Doocy, there is simply no one in today’s corrupt media who has the cojones to actually demand serious answers from President Biden.
Scott Pelley had his chance, and he failed miserably.