The White House is on a war footing to discredit the Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, asking media outlets to call out “disinformation.” An unusual call which could have a counterproductive effect, observers warn.
The US executive sent a note to the media after House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy last week announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Mr Biden, accusing the Democrat of fueling a “culture of corruption”.
Republicans have so far provided no concrete evidence to support their allegations that the president benefited financially from his son Hunter’s businesses.
Visibly upset by the media coverage of these accusations, the White House urged the media’s chief editors to “redouble” their vigilance.
Covering the story by writing “Republicans say this, but the White House says this, is a disservice to Americans who rely on the independent press to hold those in power accountable,” the memo states.
“In the modern media world, where liars and hucksters engage in misinformation and lies every day everywhere from Facebook to Fox,” this type of coverage “fails to explain the illegitimacy of these allegations (. ..) only obscures the truth,” she adds.
Accompanying this memo was a 14-page dossier dismantling seven Republican allegations about the investigation denounced as being “purely political and without evidence.”
Behind-the-scenes attempts to influence media coverage are far from rare. But the detailed memo was seen by some as instructions to the press, which could complicate the fight against disinformation ahead of a presidential election in just over a year.
It was seen as a “rather unusual” attempt to openly influence the coverage on the part of a White House that “underestimates the way in which it was perceived”, told AFP Roy Gutterman, professor at Syracuse University.
In an ultra-polarized political landscape, some media outlets have said the memo puts them in a difficult position, exposing them to attack when they report apparent inaccuracies in the impeachment inquiry.
“The media which points out the weakness of the Republican Party’s record will now appear to be cowering in the face of pressure from the White House,” estimated the news site Axios.
The executive memo, whether he likes it or not, “opens the way for more attacks on the media or worse, may make the press an easy scapegoat for any unintended consequences of the impeachment inquiry “wrote Boston Globe columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr.
Even if the investigation does not lead to an indictment, the end result “will encourage more attacks against members of the media”, she ruled.
Proponents of disinformation will portray the media as mere “mouthpieces for the White House,” and the public, who will have “even more difficulty deciding who to trust,” will be the losers, he said. -she adds.
The memo highlights how the White House wants to combat allegations of corruption before public opinion, in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election which is expected to pit Joe Biden against his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.
Kevin McCarthy had been under pressure for months from the most Trumpist members of his party to open an investigation.
The Biden administration is on “solid ground” if it wants to denounce “questionable allegations,” but “directing the press” seems “somewhat disconnected,” said Jonathan Nagler, co-director of the Center for Social Media and politics at New York University.
However, he added, the media can still expose any alleged misinformation about the matter “without appearing to be carrying out orders from the White House.”
“It is very clearly the role of the press to expose disinformation disseminated by political actors,” Mr. Nagler told AFP.
20/09/2023 05:01:23 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
