Joe Biden Laments Reporters Being Pressured To Build Up Their Own “Brand”

Ted Johnson
·3 min read

Joe Biden sat down for a rare, in-studio live interview with A TV news outlet — MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace — and at one point started to lament changes in journalism.

“Talking to a lot of reporters, they tell me — I have to be careful what I say — a number of reporters have indicated that there’s no editors anymore on what they do. And I had one reporter tell me that, ‘You know, I am a reporter but I got one of my editors of newspaper came and said, ‘You don’t have a brand yet.’ A major newspaper. They said, ‘Well, I am not an editorial writer.’ ‘But you need a brand so people will watch you, listening, because of what they think you are going to say.’ I just think there’s a lot changing.”

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Biden has previously commented on the changes in journalism. The whole issue of “branding” has raised concerns over reporters straying from standards of objectivity. Press secretaries have complained that some reporters have used the televised White House daily briefing to build their own profile.

Biden has occasionally sparred with reporters, and this week shouted an emphatic “No” when asked by one New York Post correspondent whether he was with his son Hunter Biden in 2017 when he was sending “Chinese shakedown text messages.” Republicans claim that the text messages show Hunter Biden engaged in influence peddling and that his father may have been part of it as well.

Biden was already sitting on set at Wallace’s desk when she opened the show, and they immediately started to talk about the Supreme Court ruling on Thursday that all but ends affirmative action in college admissions.

Earlier in the day, the president made remarks on his disagreement with the ruling and, in response to a reporter’s question, said that the current court is “not normal.”

“What I meant was that it’s done more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions than any court in recent history. And that’s what I meant by not normal,” Biden told Wallace.

During the friendly sit down, Wallace also asked him about proposals, coming from the left, to expand the size of the court.

“I think they may do too much harm. But I think if start the process of trying to expand the court, we’re going to politicize it, maybe forever– that’s not healthy. That we can’t get back,” Biden said.

Biden signed off of the 20-minute sit down by getting up from his seat and leaving the studio while the show was still on air. Guests typically wait for a commercial break.

During the interview, Biden made reference to Wallace’s previous gig: As communications director for President George W. Bush. As he spoke about the court decision, Biden said, “Remember the Federalist Society when you were in another administration.” “In another party,” Wallace responded, reflecting how much things have changed in the Republican party since that period. Wallace is a frequent critic of Donald Trump, and her 4 p.m. ET show Deadline: White House is among the top rated at MSNBC. On Wednesday, its 4 p.m. hour averaged 1.62 million viewers, beating Fox News with 1.09 million and CNN with 690,000. It also was top in the 25-54 demo. Fox News’s The Five continues to outrank all other cable news shows at 5 p.m., averaging 2.57 million.

Meanwhile, Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, seized on Biden’s remarks about editors to promote the administration’s efforts this week to brand the president’s economic agenda.

Sams wrote, “Editors also benefit from BIDENOMICS! Editors of a certain age can now get insulin for just $35/mo. They drive to the newsroom over rebuilt bridges thanks to the Infrastructure Law New manufacturing jobs are coming to their neighborhoods in places like NC or GA thanks to CHIPS.”

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