Fox News Peter Doocy Praises Jen Psaki in Glowing NY Times Profile: ‘It Never Feels Like I’m Getting Smacked Down’
In a glowing New York Times profile of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Fox News’s White House reporter Peter Doocy shared very kind words of mutual respect for what some see as ideological foils.
The profile comes off impossibly as both a big wet kiss and deserved plaudits for Psaki’s handling of the high-pressure role with grace, humility, and humor. And that’s not just a partisan take, that appears to be primarily supported by the individual that most in the political media world see as her arch-enemy, or at least her ideological foil: Fox’s Doocy.
Michael Grynbaum writes:
But even Mr. Doocy, whose own profile has been raised by his tough questions to Ms. Psaki, offered generous words.
“It never feels like I’m getting smacked down or vice versa,” Mr. Doocy said in an interview, during which he expressed respect for Ms. Psaki’s professionalism and good humor about their frequent contretemps. “I understand why it looks like that, some of the ways that stuff gets clipped, but it doesn’t feel like that in the room.”
He said he appreciates her personal side, too. “When I got back from my wedding,” Mr. Doocy recalled, “she made a point to tell everybody in the briefing room that I just got married. That’s a transcript I can print out and show to my kids one day.”
(Lest one think that moment of Fox-Biden comity penetrated the partisan mists, consider that the website Mediaite rendered their exchange as: “Jen Psaki Sweetly Congratulates Fox News Reporter for Getting Married — Then Cruelly Destroys His Innocent Questions.”)
We’ve gone on record as stating that Doocy was the early break-out star of the Biden administration press room, mainly because his questions are almost always the most contentious, without being disrespectful or nasty. Even President Joe Biden appears to have a soft spot in his heart for the Fox News reporter, in what we have labeled an “adversarial bromance.”
And the mutual respect between Doocy and Psaki is evident to anyone with an ounce of emotional intelligence that can watch their backs and forths unfold nearly daily from the briefing room. In an interview with Mediaite’s own Tommy Christopher, the Press Secretary explained the relationship:
“You know I would say that people don’t see this every day, but we fully recognize Peter Doocy as — and many reporters, right? They are doing their jobs and working on behalf of the media organizations they represent and asking, sometimes they’re questions that are tough,” Psaki said, and added “Sometimes they have a slant to them.”
“But my engagement with him, people don’t always see this, but outside the briefing room, it is entirely professional and entirely, hopefully, responsive,” Psaki said, and went on to add that “There’s a performative component from from the TV side of the briefing room.”
Psaki and Doocy’s working relationship and ongoing conviviality is the behavior many in the political-media ecosystem should follow. As former President Barack Obama famously stated, one can disagree without being disagreeable. Just like Jen and Peter do nearly every day.
