The Biden administration on Wednesday intends to demand media outlet executives provide negative coverage of the Biden impeachment inquiry, which it claims is “based on lies” and should “set off alarm bells.”
“It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies,” wrote White House spokesman Ian Sams, according to a draft letter reported by CNN.
Ian Sams, with the White House counsel’s office, speaks to reporters outside of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
Sams, who condemned the impeachment inquiry on Tuesday as “extreme” and unwarranted, again alleged the House Republicans had no evidence to launch the inquiry, which he said “should set off alarm bells for news organizations.”
The Biden administration intends to send the letter to many establishment news organizations, including CNN, the New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press, CBS News, and others.
It is not the first time the Biden administration has attempted to influence media coverage.
Elon Musk’s X released a batch of internal discussions in December that revealed executives at the social media company had met with federal agencies amid the Hunter Biden laptop story, and that the FBI reported tweets it didn’t like to workers at the company.
Documents also suggest that the FBI, DHS, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) met with Twitter executives about the Hunter Biden laptop story, which Twitter censored during the 2020 presidential election.
The Biden administration and big tech allegedly colluded to suppress free speech during the pandemic with at least 88 separate communications, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt revealed last year.
In January 2022, President Joe Biden complained about “disinformation” regarding the coronavirus and vaccines on social media.
“I make a special appeal to social media companies and media outlets — please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that’s on your shows,” Biden said. “It has to stop.”
In December, Biden demanded people stop producing “misinformation” about the coronavirus vaccines.
“The unvaccinated are responsible for their own choices, but those choices have been fueled by dangerous misinformation on cable TV and social media,” Biden said.
A woman wearing a face mask walks past the closed iron curtain of a restaurant on which it is written “Covid 19-84,” referring to the book 1984 by George Orwell, on December 10, 2020. (JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.