Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
Quote:White House press secretary Jen Psaki admitted she treats White House reporters in the briefing room as if they are patients in an insane asylum.
“[W]hen reporters are getting really loud, or they’re starting to ask crazy questions, I just slow down my pace, and I talk very quietly, and I treat them like I’m an orderly sometimes in an insane asylum,” she said in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) released Saturday.
The infamous antagonist character Nurse Ratched in the film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” used similar tactics to combat the disruptive character played by actor Jack Nicholson.
“Not that they’re people in an insane asylum,” Psaki continued. “But, sometimes, that’s all you have to do to cool yourself down inside.”
Psaki also joked that she used photos of former White House press secretary Sean Spicer participating in the show “Dancing with the Stars” to make her feel better after a bad day.
“Whenever I’m having a low day, I kind of — I have from time to time pulled up that picture of Sean Spicer — the video of him shimmying in that shirt,” she said. “It’s nothing personal. I don’t wish him ill. But that shirt was pretty amazing.”
Psaki gossiped about President Joe Biden’s use of a Peloton exercise bike and even admitted that her use of the phrase “circle back” was “sort of a tic” that she had to work on fixing.
“Sometimes you just have to follow up with them. And that’s OK, too,” she said. “So I actually do do that. But when I am not going to tell them anymore, I say, I don’t have anything more for you on that. So that’s my tip. Use it with boyfriends, whatever. That’s fine.”
RE: Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
Like her or not...pretty good advice. Ive used similar methods in meetings in which participants got out of hand and off track. I just raise my hand and say nothing. It usually stops the cross talk and gets them back focused. I have nothing against this woman. She is just doing her job...and one that can be frustrating at times with people yelling for her time.
RE: Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
(02-01-2021 07:07 PM)Fo Shizzle Wrote: Like her or not...pretty good advice. Ive used similar methods in meetings in which participants got out of hand and off track. I just raise my hand and say nothing. It usually stops the cross talk and gets them back focused. I have nothing against this woman. She is just doing her job...and one that can be frustrating at times with people yelling for her time.
I don't fina anything wrong with what she said either. It is good advice. Sane as comparing the press pool to kindergarteners that dont know to wait their turn.
My only issue is that if Spicer, Sanders, or McEnany had said this, the press would be talking about how hostile they were being towards them.
RE: Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
(02-01-2021 07:27 PM)200yrs2late Wrote:
(02-01-2021 07:07 PM)Fo Shizzle Wrote: Like her or not...pretty good advice. Ive used similar methods in meetings in which participants got out of hand and off track. I just raise my hand and say nothing. It usually stops the cross talk and gets them back focused. I have nothing against this woman. She is just doing her job...and one that can be frustrating at times with people yelling for her time.
I don't fina anything wrong with what she said either. It is good advice. Sane as comparing the press pool to kindergarteners that dont know to wait their turn.
My only issue is that if Spicer, Sanders, or McEnany had said this, the press would be talking about how hostile they were being towards them.
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Oh..no doubt. This rolled right of the press corps backs. They would have exploded if McEnany had said this. She could spit at them and get away with it.
RE: Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
Schiff, that's a bunch of hooey, how mean can those Lib reporters get with her. I'm still waiting for Abilio to start harrassing her like he did with every Republican press corpmen...yeah, right.
RE: Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
Quote:Biden staffers have prescreened reporters ahead of Jen Psaki’s briefings to see what they plan to ask the White House press secretary, according to a report from the left-wing Daily Beast.
The outlet cited “three sources with knowledge of the matter” and “written communications” that revealed that the Biden administration has “already on occasion probed reporters to see what questions they plan on asking new White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki when called upon during briefings” less than two weeks into the new administration.
The report suggests that Psaki would have some idea of what reporters plan to ask prior to formally presenting their questions. Despite that, her “circle back” answers on tough questions have become a staple of her press briefings. It remains unclear which, if any, reporters cooperated with the administration’s inquiries. Leaders of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) have reportedly urged reporters not to accommodate the administration in that capacity:
“I often note I’m going to circle back. I hate to disappoint conservative Twitter but I’m going to circle back on a number of things as we often do directly,” she said on Monday following mounting critiques from social media users highlighting her seeming inability to directly answer questions on the spot:
According to the Daily Beast, the Biden administration’s actions have sparked a sense of paranoia among the White House press corps, “whose members, like many reporters, are sensitive to the perception that they are coordinating with political communications staffers”:
One reporter raised the issue during an informal White House Correspondents Association Zoom call last Friday. According to multiple sources, leaders at the meeting advised print reporters to push back against requests by the White House press team to learn of questions in advance, or simply to not respond to the Biden team’s inquiries.
The concerns follow the demonstrative shift in attitude that coincided with former President Trump’s departure from the White House. In the weeks leading up to inauguration day, CNN reporters, specifically, previewed their forthcoming change in coverage, admitting that they would cover Biden’s administration differently.
“I don’t think the press should be trying to whip up the Biden presidency and turn it into must-see TV in a contrived way,” CNN’s Jim Acosta said in an Atlantic piece published in December. In the piece, CNN reporter Daniel Dale, too, stated that his job would “not be a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job to fact-check Biden” because “the simple reality is that Biden doesn’t lie nearly as often as Trump does.”
However, the Biden administration’s pre-screening of questions continues to cause concern among reporters.
“The press can’t really do its job in the briefing room if the White House is picking and choosing the questions they want,” a White House correspondent said, according to the Daily Beast. “That’s not really a free press at all.”
A White House spokesperson told the outlet that the primary goal remains to “make the daily briefing as useful and informative as possible for both reporters and the public.”
“Part of meeting that objective means regularly engaging with the reporters who will be in the briefing room to understand how the White House can be most helpful in getting them the information they need,” the spokesperson continued, touting the “two-way communication” as an “important part of keeping the American people updated about how government is serving them.”
In an interview with NPR released over the weekend, Psaki, who does not wear a mask while speaking at the press briefings despite the 78-year-old president’s executive action, offered insight into how she views White House reporters, explaining that she treats them as patients in an insane asylum.
“[W]hen reporters are getting really loud, or they’re starting to ask crazy questions, I just slow down my pace, and I talk very quietly, and I treat them like I’m an orderly sometimes in an insane asylum,” she told the outlet, although she clarified that she does not technically consider them people in an insane asylum.
“Not that they’re people in an insane asylum,” Psaki said. “But, sometimes, that’s all you have to do to cool yourself down inside.”
RE: Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
(02-01-2021 08:12 PM)DaSaintFan Wrote: Shucks.. i was hoping she said she was bringing out the shock sticks and collars!
Its a pretty good analogy. Press corps are mostly insane. Completely driven out of their mind by fear of the Wuhan virus and infection with the TDS virus.
RE: Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
(02-02-2021 01:21 PM)mptnstr@44 Wrote: Psaki is what you get when you hire by checking boxes and gifting jobs to loyalists instead of hiring the best person for the position.
Quotas.....
It is a slippery slope. I am all for giving anyone a chance [almost] no matter who you are, but people need to realize that you may have to learn (AKA pay your dues) in order to get into some jobs.
Being [fill in the blank] does not mean you are qualified.
I have zero doubts that people who are [fill in the blank] have been passed by because they are [fill in the bank] and it will take a lot of time for any kind of balance to be achieved, but giving people a job who they are not qualified for will always slow or stop progress for that job/business.
[fill in the blank] means POC, female, religion, political affiliation or Hunter Biden...........
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2021 02:36 PM by Eldonabe.)
RE: Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
(02-02-2021 02:13 PM)Eldonabe Wrote:
(02-02-2021 01:21 PM)mptnstr@44 Wrote: Psaki is what you get when you hire by checking boxes and gifting jobs to loyalists instead of hiring the best person for the position.
Quotas.....
It is a slippery slope. I am all for giving anyone a chance [almost] no matter who you are, but people need to realize that you may have to learn (AKA pay your dues) in order to get into some jobs.
Being [fill in the blank] does not mean you are qualified.
I have zero doubts that people who are [fill in the blank] have been passed by because they are [fill in the bank] and it will take a lot of time for any kind of balance to be achieved, but giving people a job who they are not qualified for will always slow or stop progress for that job/business.
Filling positions based on boxchecking also does the job recipient a disservice as taking over a position someone is unqualified/unprepared for almost certainly sets them up for almost certain failure.
RE: Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
I'll bet money that eventually we discover that the questions she gets asked are pre-scripted and vetted beforehand. And even still, she can't answer them
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2021 03:30 PM by TheOriginalBigApp.)
RE: Jen Psaki: I Treat Reporters Like ‘I’m an Orderly in an Insane Asylum’
(02-02-2021 03:29 PM)TheOriginalBigApp Wrote: I'll bet money that eventually we discover that the questions she gets asked are pre-scripted and vetted beforehand. And even still, she can't answer them
I'm not taking that bet, that very thing was reported earlier just today.
Amateur hour at it's finest, it's almost like we've seen this movie before.