The White House has sent out a demanding letter to its media allies demanding that they take a harsh stance on the GOP’s impeachment effort but the responses have been brutal.
This week the White House sent out letters to CNN, The New York Times, CBS, the Associated Press, and many other news outlets in which they demanded the companies “ramp up” the “scrutiny” and basically begin Republican bashing.
The White House Counsel’s office spokesperson Ian Sams wrote in the letter, “Covering impeachment as a process story – Republicans say X, but the White House says Y – is a disservice to the American public who relies on the independent press to hold those in power accountable. And in the modern media environment, where every day liars and hucksters peddle disinformation and lies everywhere from Facebook to Fox, process stories that fail to unpack the illegitimacy of the claims on which House Republicans are basing all their actions only serve to generate confusion, put false premises in people’s feeds, and obscure the truth.”
The White House is now on the record telling the media to align with Democrats and be adversaries to the Republican Party.
The letter from the White House was met with a harsh backlash.
“Has the White House gotten so bold that they are brazenly telling the media to predetermine their coverage? As a former reporter, this is outrageous. Republicans will follow the facts wherever they will lead. And the media should report the facts without bias,” tweeted Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson.
The communications director of the GOP Oversight committee slammed the letter for “threatening to the media to stop reporting the truth.”
In a recent column from legal analyst Jonathan Turley, he wrote the letter is blatantly calling “for media to tailor the coverage to push the position of the White House.”
“Once again, what is most disturbing is that the White House shows no reluctance or concern in making such an open pitch to the press. There is a sense of license in using the media as an extension of the White House press push. The fact that this is a representative of the White House counsel’s office is particularly chilling. This is not the press office but the counsel for the President calling on media to form a unified front against the Republicans and the impeachment inquiry,” he added.
Turley wrote, “The letter is an alarming erosion of separation of the White House Counsel’s office from the Biden defense team. It also confirms an active and aggressive role of White House officials in swatting down allegations against the President. While the staff obviously is not expected to be neutral on impeachment, there is a careful line that past White House counsels have walked between fulfilling their duties to the office as opposed to the officeholder.”
