A circus of a briefing

When can we see adults again?

Being the White House press secretary is a thankless job, especially during days when it seems like more and more reporters aren’t after information so much as they are a viral clip they can put on Twitter.

It was a circus at last Tuesday’s pre-Christmas press briefing. Few seemed to know how to do their job—any job. Kayleigh McEnany, the current press secretary for the White House, scolded reporters for not covering stories her boss would prefer. Fox News had some quotes of her upbraiding the press:

“We found out that Democrat Congressman Eric Swalwell was infiltrated by an alleged Chinese spy, this spy cozied up to Swalwell, raised funds for his 2014 campaign and even planted an intern in his office and that relationship continued until the FBI briefed him in 2015, and that was some very good reporting done by Axios.

“When the Swalwell story broke, guess how many minutes of coverage it got on ABC, NBC, MSNBC and CBS? Zero. CNN devoted three minutes and 16 seconds to it.”

Then she pivoted to one of the president’s favorite subjects, Hunter Biden: “Which was not covered, at all, by many outlets in the lead up to the election. In fact, on Oct. 15 you had a New York Times headline that said ‘Trump said to be warned that he was being given Russian disinformation over Hunter Biden,’ Now, Dec. 10, just a few months later, New York Times headline, ‘ Investigation of Hunter Biden is likely to hang over Biden as he takes office.’”

“Good for those who covered what was a story all along.”

From these quotes, one might assume her job was that of a newspaper editor yelling at reporters for ignoring big stories. Except that’s not what taxpayers pay her to do. Her job is to provide information on White House activities and answer questions from journalists. (Newspapers hire editors to yell at reporters.)

When you have people like CNN’s Jim Acosta in the room, one can imagine Ms. McEnany’s job gets tedious, and fast. As the press secretary walked out of the room that day, Mr. Acosta attempted what must have been his 40th or 50th dunk.

A clip of him yelling, “Isn’t it hypocritical for you to accuse others of disinformation when you spread it every day?” went viral on Twitter, which probably pleased him no end. It’s a wonder what CNN pays Mr. Acosta to do. It surely can’t be to report on the White House. He seems to be there to make a spectacle.

Watching briefings like that makes us rub our head in disappointment. If press briefings are going to be a circus, perhaps they need to go the way of Ringling Bros. circa 2017. When it ended.