Fox’s Peter Doocy tried to turn his whining about not getting called on at President Biden’s press conference into a conspiracy theory at Friday’s White House press briefing. It didn't go well.
As PoliticusUSA noted, Fox spent at least three days on Doocy’s Thursday martyrdom. Although you’d think that after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki got through with him on Friday, the network would have waved a white flag.
From the White House transcript of the March 26, 2021 press briefing:
Q [DOOCY]: Okay, and just one more about yesterday. We noticed, starting at the end of the campaign and then into the transition and here at the White House, anytime that the President has an event where he’s given a list of reporters to call on, Fox is the only member of the five-network TV pool that has never been on the list in front of the President. And I’m just curious if that is an official administration policy.
MS. PSAKI: We’re here having a conversation, aren’t we?
Q Yes, but the President —
MS. PSAKI: And do I take questions from you every time you come to the briefing room?
Q Yes, but I’m talking about the President.
MS. PSAKI: Has the President taken questions from you since you came in — since you — since he came into office?
Q Unfortunately —
MS. PSAKI: Yes or no?
Q — only when I have shouted after he goes through his whole list. And the President has been very generous with his time with Fox. I’m just curious about this list that he is given.
MS. PSAKI: So —
Q The only member of the five-network pool never on it, dating back to when he resumed in-person events in Wilmington during the end of the campaign.
MS. PSAKI: Well I would say that I’m always happy to have this conversation with you, even about your awesome socks you’re having on today — you’re wearing today — and have a conversation with you even when we disagree. The President has taken your questions. And I’m looking forward to doing Fox News Sunday this Sunday for the third time in the last few months.
Psaki did indeed appear on Fox News Sunday yesterday. Host Chris Wallace did not bring up this subject, which suggests he knows it's a faux controversy.
You can watch Psaki ruin Doocy’s conspiracy theory below, from the March 26, 2021 White House press briefing, via Sarah Reese Jones.
Fox News has been really trying hard to push a myth that Biden is excluding them and not taking their question, but Press Sec. Psaki shut them down,
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 26, 2021
It is clear that the network is trying to distract from the $1.6 billion lawsuit about their election lies. pic.twitter.com/8QR4a00S8C
None of this would be particularly interesting – except that disgraced former Fox News host Eric Bolling decided to attack Wallace from the Right on Newsmax, repeatedly saying that he thinks Wallace is a liberal and wasn’t throwing hard enough fastballs at Psaki’s head. It’s frankly interesting to see Bolling take this approach (and instructional to see how much a toll the last few years have taken on him – in fairness, his son died right after Bolling was fired in 2017, but his career was spiraling down before that happened. It didn’t help him to have a reputation as a serious sexual harasser in the workplace).
I’ll note that Bolling is now supposedly 4 years into his threatened 50 million dollar lawsuit against Yashar Ali for having the temerity to write a carefully researched and sourced article about Bolling’s bad behavior. It’s odd that we haven’t heard anything about Bolling’s lawsuit since he got a stern letter from Ali’s attorney that pointed out his extreme vulnerability and that they were looking forward to deposing him and getting access to his phone and computer records which they expected him to produce shortly. It’s not odd that Bolling’s show on a Sinclair-owned outlet was cancelled, even after he repeatedly prostrated himself before Pence’s childish spokesman in fawning “interviews” that were unwatchable to anyone other than hardened members of the Pence White House voter base. And it’s not odd that he’s been reduced to co-hosting a podcast.
It’s telling that multiple disgraced former Fox News personalities, including both Bolling and Bill O’Reilly, have taken this tack – of trying to present themselves as expert “elder statesmen” who can expose the “truth” about the Biden/Harris White House or about their feelings about Jen Psaki. In reality, they continue to be what they’ve been for years – disgraced former television personalities who have yet to own up to the despicable behavior that ended their careers.