The mainstream media goons who shrieked and moaned about a “free press” during the Trump administration are pretty mum after the Biden admin announced that they will be charging reporters for their COVID tests every time they enter the building.
Without taking the $170 test, reporters will not be allowed to enter the building to go to press briefings.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the White House is seeking to put the new charges in place on Monday.
Charges this high would make it much harder for smaller and independent outlets to get into the briefings, which would make corporate media shills dominate the room even harder than they already do.
The Daily Caller notes that “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki vowed hours after Biden’s inauguration to bring ‘truth and transparency back to the briefing room.’ President Donald Trump’s White House footed the bill for testing reporters daily for months before leaving office. Biden’s White House has limited the number of tests to 80 per day.”
During the Trump admin, there was no charge for any reporter to attend briefings.
Unlike the highly accessible Trump admin, in 2014, under then-President Barack Obama, the estimated cost for journalists to travel with the president on his trip to China, Burma and Australia on a chartered press aircraft was said to be $60,000 per person, possibly the most expensive in history.
“Obama and his aides seem to be increasingly insular, which deepens resentment among reporters and photographers who feel shut out of the information flow and who object more strenuously to being denied access to the president and his senior advisers. All this tends to discourage the media from traveling with the commander in chief and intensifies friction between the White House and the press corps,” a member of the White House Correspondents Association wrote in 2014.