(Headline USA) A recent meeting between the Biden campaign and the New York Times “did not go well,” according to a new report from Semafor.
A source familiar with the meeting said Monday that Biden’s team has been meeting with reporters and editorial members of major news outlets over the past few months, likely in an effort to influence their coverage of the president and his reelection bid.
Most of the meetings with reporters have been “substantive” and “productive,” the source said, “with the exception of its recent meeting” with the Times.
It could be that the Times reporters did not appreciate the Biden campaign’s criticism of their coverage.
Semafor claimed the Biden campaign “invoked a spreadsheet laying out areas where the team believes their reporting has fallen short,” and used the meeting as an “opportunity to tell them what they’re getting wrong.”
Biden’s officials were also reportedly frustrated with the outlet’s “coverage of former President Donald Trump,” arguing that the media is “too focused on his legal troubles and haven’t paid enough attention to some of his incendiary recent statements on the campaign trail.”
This is not the first time Biden’s team has complained about the media when it declines to give him glowing coverage.
In December, for example, President Joe Biden lashed out at reporters who asked him about his dropping poll numbers, accusing them of misreporting the polls and focusing on the “wrong” ones.
And at a Chicago fundraiser on Nov. 9, Biden reportedly told donors that while “the press has been talking about two polls … there are 10 other polls we’re winning.”
The Hill reported shortly after the exchange between Biden and the reporters that “part of the frustration is the disproportionate media focus on the polls that show Biden losing while ignoring polls that show him winning,” according to those familiar with the White House’s thinking.
Of the 12 most recent polls, Biden has won three and tied two, while Trump—who currently leads with a 2.2 point advantage in the RealClearPolitics average, won the remaining seven outright. One of the polls that showed Biden winning was the most recent New York Times poll.
