Honeymoon for Biden press teamwon’t be lasting long
The breathlessness surrounding President-elect Joe Biden’s communications and press offices — all women! — should be considered a honeymoon that will end at approximately 1 a.m. on Jan. 21, the day after Biden’s inauguration.
It’s all in the stars. Constellations, that is, of media superstars, many of whom have become household names and late-night TV guests, thanks in large part to outgoing President Donald Trump. The gift that kept on giving to reporters, editors, publishers and network bean-counters is leaving town and will no longer provide endless fodder for reporters, commentators and viewers who couldn’t take their eyes off the spectacle.
We knew it couldn’t last. Eventually, the producer in chief would have to leave the Oval Office and the media would have to scramble for news as in the days before a wheeler-dealer handed them diamonds before breakfast. If Trump wasn’t the media’s favorite president, he was surely their favorite fake wrestler. A pugilist with small hands and a commander in chief with fallen arches, The Don was concurrently a nightmare and a dream-cometrue for pundits and headline writers.
He was simply easy pickins, by his own choosing. His verbal antics and Twitter frenzies were often served up for particular time slots and news shows, which he reportedly watched for hours throughout most days while on the clock.
Celebrity, meantime, has grown exponentially for the erstwhile ink-stained press corps. Thanks to the country’s train-wreck infatuation with Trump, many mere correspondents have become major attractions.
This brings us back to the Biden communications staff, which, in addition to making choreographed history, is sailing toward treacherous waters. Even before Thanksgiving, all was not peace and tranquility in Biden world. Unnamed campaign staffers complained to Politico that former Obama officials were snagging top jobs and expressed fears that they might not get spots.
The spokeswomen, however, mostly come from within the campaign, except for press secretary Jen Psaki, who held several communications titles, including communications director, in the Obama White House. Kate Bedingfield, named White House communications director, served as campaign communications director and will now hold the same job she held for Biden when he was vice president. Karine JeanPierre, a former NBC and MSNBC political analyst, was tapped from the campaign to become principal deputy White House press secretary.
The women are understandably excited to step into these new, important roles. But they’re also entering a lion’s den thick with oversize egos. Even though much of the media despised Trump and kept it no secret, this doesn’t mean they’ll go easy on Biden and his spokespeople. In fact, given the largeness of their own celebrity status, they’re likely to be even tougher.
The media are hard on those in power, full stop. And they care about one thing — the story. Trump was a loaves-and-fishes story who kept growing the media’s audience, ratings and advertising. Without him, one wonders what becomes of those big-budget payrolls. Biden will be more challenging because he’ll be boring, which is good for the country but not necessarily for the bookers, scribes and narrators.
Thus, to the White House communications women, a word of advice: Beware.