Report: Biden Campaign Scolds Media with ‘Spreadsheets’ for ‘Falling Short’ on Covering Trump 

The Biden campaign reportedly holds off-the-record meetings with establishment news reporters and editors to provide them with spreadsheets about where they think their reporting fell short.

The media’s willingness to take direction from Biden suggests why Americans do not trust the establishment media, as Gallup polling shows:

• Only 32 percent trust the establishment media “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”
• 50 percent say the national media intend to mislead, misinform, and persuade the public.
• Just 35 percent say most news organizations can be relied upon.

The New York Times, the Washington Post, and other outlets participate in the meetings, where Biden campaign aides instruct them how to negatively report on Trump and where their previous “reporting has fallen short,” sources told Semafor on Monday. Apparently the meeting with the Times did not go well.

The aides claim the media are “too focused” on the legal attacks against Trump instead of his alleged “incendiary” comments, Semafor reported:

Biden’s re-election campaign has begun organizing a series of off-the-record trips for top political reporters and editors to the team’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware and meet senior officials, including the campaign manager, deputies, and other high-ranking advisors for background briefings on campaign strategy.

They’re also using it as an opportunity to tell them what they’re getting wrong. Two people with knowledge of the situation told Semafor that during meetings with reporters from outlets like The New York Times, the Washington Post, and others, campaign officials have invoked a coverage spreadsheet laying out areas where the team believes their reporting has fallen short.

In particular, campaign officials have chafed at some of the coverage of former President Donald Trump, feeling that outlets are too focused on his legal troubles and haven’t paid enough attention to some of his incendiary recent statements on the campaign trail. A source familiar told Semafor that with the exception of its recent meeting with the Times, the campaign meetings had been “substantive” and “productive,” and that Biden staffers were scheduled to meet in the coming days with political reporting teams from ABC, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fox, NPR, Reuters, Bloomberg, and others in Wilmington.

The report comes after Biden took aim at the media for reporting on soaring costs in his economy, the top issue among taxpayers heading into the 2024 election year.

“Start reporting it the right way,” Biden told reporters when asked about his economic outlook.

Several polls show Biden is not doing well, as soaring costs and the southern border invasion dominate American workers’ top concerns: