Biden's handlers are 'terrified' he will go off script

let's bring in our panel joining me tonight is broadcaster author and journalist kell richards and columnist at the spectator and the australian rebecca weiser rebecca how are you lovely to be here on easter friday yeah brilliant and kel thank you mate nice to be here well thank you both for joining me look the thing that really jumps out at me is that if these publications whose bread and butter really is is to stand up for migrants that's what they they champion themselves as being if they're not casting a light on what's happening at the border why would biden have to act well i think um we've seen this film before played here in australia and the reality of course is that the media can ignore the story up to a point but ultimately the reality of children in cages remember when it was donald trump and the border then we had endless footage of children in cages all of a sudden we're not getting that reporting now but sooner or later this has all sorts of impacts for people in america it has impacts in terms of jobs and wages you know as there is more and more unskilled labor available it puts downward pressure on wages and so forth so there is a real political imperative for the government uh for the democrats to get it right but obviously they're not feeling necessarily the pressure yet definitely and um i mean credit to the abc i mean historically they haven't necessarily covered some of this stuff fair but they've got a journalist on the ground yes at the border and and she did a very good job of explaining it i think with clarity and objectivity in fact what we saw from her was reporting yes and what worries me is there are too many journalists these days who have forgotten what it means to be a reporter reporting means you reflect what reality is you look at the real situation on the ground and you tell your readers you tell your viewers your listeners what that reality is now there are people living in the border states texas new mexico california and so they know what it's like they know the problem they can see it it's happening in front of them they expect good media coverage to be reporting and what we're getting now is we're getting something like commentary or personal opinion in the guise of reporting that's a very very dangerous switch unless unless i don't know i i feel like maybe i'm being nasty but i feel like blaming the journalism schools because the journalism schools often they're in universities so they're a bit left-wing and they are encouraging journalists to be activists instead of reporters years ago cp scott when he was running the manchester guardian back in the days when it was in manchester before it just became the guardian he said comment is free but facts are sacred that's the difference knowing what facts are knowing how to report getting the facts across to people being accurate about it before you start telling them what your opinion is or how you think you should lay up the facts a clear separation of what is opinion and what is a new story that is that is very key and what one thing is well with with the guardian they're begging people for money on the premise that that they will fight misinformation and they are the cause of it and the very people that would most probably want to read the guardian they're hurting these people these people who are in detention by saying there's no big deal well it's um kind of funny i mean they say we're not beholden to anyone else you know but actually every newspaper should be beholden to its readers in fact they're beholden to their own bias and so that's why we get this distortion but it won't it won't help them as well you know sooner or later people turn elsewhere to get the information i agree and um look this could be part of the problem this is probably part of the reason why journalists are maybe taking some of these abiding government talking points and running now we've got a grab of biden who appears to be relying on what is a pre-approved list of journalists while he's bumbling at his very first ever press conference okay um hang on uh sorry oh saying miss kim kell what do you make of that now we don't know for sure that he had the pre-approved list of journalists but he's he's sorting through his paper it looks and he reads the name and then he goes you and another point to make is that not a single fox news reporter was asked and presumably they're they're the the media company of opposition doesn't ask them a question there are two things here the first is uh speaking for a particular group of citizens i want to draw a distinction between old age and dementia uh the problem is not that biden is 78. i mean an alcohol colleague of mine john lawrence is on the air in his mid 80s and sounding as good as ever he's fabulous i work with bob rogers until bob was in his 90s so let's not blame this on his age this is some he appears to have some kind of dementia now that that's a problem which has occurred for joe biden that's what he seems to have and what it's exposed in this case is the fact that as you say they it's all set up why did it take so long he's taken longer than any other president to have a press conference a media conference uh why did it take so long because his handlers are terrified he'll go off script and he'll make a mess of things so they were so worried about it everything was on a piece of paper everything was written down this brings me back to my concern about the journalists the journalists should not be saying we will agree to you working from a list of people uh you put us on the list that's okay leave those other people off the list that's fine they should be if even in the canberra bubble even in the washington bubble journalists should not agree to that kind of thing they should say we're all here as reporters we're all here as journalists let us all have a shout out well said and and how do you make of how he handled uh his first press conference oh well it was kind of hilarious i guess in a way we got so many grabs out of it in that particular one i thought it was funny there was one poor guy who had his hand up and i thought your name is your question hasn't been vetted exactly i look i find it kind of painful i really do because you know it's a real problem for people when their memory starts to go and you know i don't even i don't find it funny i find it actually sad i do find it quite sad as well he's kind of been put up here as his post to child and he's clearly struggling and to a certain point it is actually um it's a bit worrying for the american people as well like it's past that point where they're just funny gaffes and bumbling it is actually a little bit serious i i couldn't agree with you more and who's running the country you know if you can't even find who's questioned you know whose name on the list to ask a question gosh you wonder what would happen you know it's frightening

Channel: Sky News Australia

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Length: 6min 52sec (412 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 02 2021