The Cable News-White House Pipeline Was a BFD Under Trump. Why Isn’t It Under Biden?

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is stepping down at the end of this week, and, if reporting is correct, she will land some sort of hosting gig at MSNBC. She will be replaced by Karine Jean-Pierre, a former MSNBC contributor. Oh, and Symone Sanders, the former deputy press secretary for Vice President Kamala Harris, just launched her new show last weekend also on MSNBC.

The cozy relationship between beltway media and the White House is a well-told tale. In fact, cable news contributors often leave their TV gigs (like Psaki leaving CNN) to serve in new administrations. It’s as predictable as someone using the “swallows return to Capistrano” as a cliched metaphor.

What’s unique about this administration, however, is just how little attention these high-level moves have received from a media that breathlessly covered the revolving door between the Trump White House and Fox News. That was a story then, but why is it not really a story now? There isn’t a clear answer other than different standards being applied to the Biden administration and the media that cover them.

A cursory search for similar stories over the past five years is revealing. NBC News published “The Trump-Fox News revolving door is perfect for Hope Hicks — but terrible for America,” Media Matters put forth “A comprehensive review of the revolving door between Fox and the Trump administration,” The Washington Post produced a video titled “The revolving door between Fox News and the Trump administration,” and The New Yorker Radio Hour featured “Jane Mayer on the Revolving Door Between Fox News and the White House.”

There are scads more examples, but you get the point that the cozy relationship between Fox News and the Trump White House was covered extensively. And rightfully so! How can a media outlet fairly cover an administration populated by so many former colleagues? It’s possible but certainly more challenging. And that’s worthy of coverage. In fact, we’ve covered it extensively ourselves.

Now to be fair, when word got out that Psaki had some sort of pending deal with MSNBC while she was still press secretary, she got a LOT of attention. I even argued that she’d crossed a significant ethical line by remaining on the government payroll as a press secretary dealing with outlets that were soon to be her competitors. But even that criticism Psaki received pales in comparison to the revolving door narrative we saw between 2016 to 2020.

A cursory look at senior-level officials at the Biden White House looks a lot like the CNN contributor page from the last administration.

There’s Tony Blinken, who served as a global affairs analyst for CNN and is now currently the Biden Administration’s Secretary of State. Jennifer Granholm, a former CNN contributor, is now serving as Secretary of Energy. Samantha Vinograd, a former CNN National Security Analyst, announced she will serve as a Department of Homeland Security senior counselor. Susan Hennessey, a former CNN global affairs analyst, will serve as senior counsel for the department’s national security division. Thomas Nides was tapped to be Ambassador to Israel. His wife, Virginia Moseley, is the SVP of Newsgathering at CNN. That’s an enormous revolving door!

And, of course, the Trump-Fox News revolving door was built over four years. And there is a material difference between Fox’s supportive relationship with Trump and the more subtle, but insidious coziness between other networks and the Biden administration, which is not even a year and a half old.

Perhaps by 2024, we will see the Biden revolving door receive similar scrutiny? But you and I both know that will never happen.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.