The White House sent a letter to top U.S. news executives on Tuesday, calling on the collective media “to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies.”
The two-page memorandum and 14-page attachment came from Ian Sams, a senior advisor to the president and spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office. The involvement of the White House Counsel’s Office has provoked reactions of disapproval from some who believe the request is improper and has been defended by others who say the media has not done enough to debunk the accusations against the president.
Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor and political commentator, wrote on his website that with the White House mobilized in defense against the corruption investigation into the president, Biden is opening himself up to “Nixonian-type allegations of the abuse of office in the use of federal employees to counter impeachment efforts.”
According to Turley, by having White House lawyers enlist the media for a campaign against impeachment, “[t]he letter removes any pretense of separation between the Biden personal legal team and the White House Counsel’s office.”
In the memorandum, Sams stated, “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.”
Turley quoted that comment, summarizing its meaning as, “In other words, media should (and it has for years) decline to give equal attention to allegations against the Bidens and instead tell the public what the truth is.”
Reporting on the memorandum, CNN’s Oliver Darcy referenced the same quote, assessing its meaning this way:
“… [T]he White House asked news organizations to be more clear-eyed in their coverage of the impeachment inquiry, and not to fall prey to the traps of false equivalency in reporting.”
Sams went on to allege in the memo: “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.”
Journalist Matthew Keys took to the social platform X to chastise the White House for sending the letter.
“This is not okay. The White House should not be encouraging, influencing or interfering in the editorial strategies of America’s newsrooms, including CNN and the New York Times,” he wrote.
In response to a comment on his posting, Keys pointed out, “‘Covering’ what Republicans say and do, and ‘promoting’ their agenda, is not the same thing.”
“The American public likes to confuse the two, and some media outlets do deliberately blur those lines,” he added.
However, the letter might be having its intended effect. Investigative journalist Mark Albert weighed in on the merits of the inquiry on Friday, posting to X an Axios article critical of House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) for his handling of the investigation.
Albert then added, “Rep. James Comer, leader of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into Pres Biden, repeatedly exaggerated & distorted findings of his investigation into Biden family this year.”