Extraordinary scenes unfolded Monday at the White House as the Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spent the briefing promoting a TV show instead of taking questions from reporters.
Jean-Pierre was flanked by the cast of the Apple TV show Ted Lasso for some reason that isn’t entirely clear (something to do with mental health), and proceeded to promote that show rather than undertaking the usual briefing.
It was all too much for News Africa reporter Simon Ateba, who has been frustrated for months by Jean-Pierre refusing to call on him on a daily basis.
Ateba accused Karine Jean-Pierre of “making a mockery of the First Amendment.”
As she yelled out “No! No! No! No! No! We’re not doing this! We’re not doing this! We’re not doing this!” Ateba spoke up, stating “The US is not China! This is not Russia! “It’s been seven months and you have not called on me! That’s not right.”
“Are we going to behave?” Karine Jean-Pierre responded, as if Ateba was a naughty school child.
Cringe Jean Pierre SILENCES black reporter for calling out her censorship of him— The Reporter went BEAST MODE:
"This is not Russia. You are making a mockery of the First Amendment."
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 20, 2023
Worse still, other reporters in the room urged Ateba to shut up, with NBC News correspondent Kelly O’Donnell even declaring “Sorry to our guests. We apologize.”
Jeff Mason, a Reuters correspondent also told Ateba “If you have grievances, you should bring them to her later…The press corps is tired of dealing with this.”
Another reporter, Brian Karem told Ateba to “mind your manners when you’re in here.”
When the promotion of Ted Lasso had ended and the actual questioning began, Associated Press correspondent Zeke Miller also apologized, stating “I just want to express our apologies from the press corps to the folks watching at home for the display you saw earlier. Our responsibility is to them.”
Further addressing Ateba, Jean-Pierre added, “I understand that there’s going to be give and take. That’s the way the press briefing has gone for decades, before me and I will always, always respect that but what I will not, what I will not appreciate is disrespecting your colleagues and disrespecting guests who are here to talk, who were here to talk an incredibly important issue which is mental health.”
“And what has just occurred this last 10, 15 minutes is unacceptable,” she added.
Ateba later appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show, with the host noting “If you want to know what a complete sham, what a fraudulent grotesque perversion of reality the White House briefings have become you should have seen what happened today. The low-IQ White House press security brought a bunch of TV actors to stand there so she can promote a TV show Ted Lasso for some reason.”
Carlson continued, “Why are we doing this again? She never really explained. Mental health day or something. None of them were doctors. But at the same time she was promoting a TV show, the White House press secretary refused to take questions from actual reporters.”
“So here you have the White House press secretary whose job it is to answer questions from journalists on behalf of the entire American population hijacking the event to promote a TV show and then screaming at a guy who wants his questions answered, and then the other shills in the room don’t take the side of their fellow journalist but take the side of the lady at the front to whom they were actually beholden and try to shut down Simon Ateba,” Carlson further urged, adding that the other reporters “should be ashamed.”
The host added that “Previous generations of reporters would have turned on them. Really, you’re taking her side? She’s a liar? Your job is not to suck up to power, it’s to serve your viewers and readers by getting to the truth. But instead they piled on Simon Ateba. Really the most revealing moment maybe ever in the White House press room.”
Ateba told Carlson “The First Amendment protects the freedom of speech, the press and assembly, and the right to petition your government to seek redress. And that First Amendment says that I have the right to ask a question to do my job and the press secretary doesn’t need to like me.”
The reporter continued, “[She] doesn’t need to like me, date me, marry me… have two Black children with me. She doesn’t need all that. She doesn’t even need to like my accent, doesn’t need to like what I look like [or] where I come from.”
Ateba further claimed that the White House “looks down” on him and “doesn’t respect” the First Amendment.
“So what has been happening in the White House is in the past seven months, I’ve done all the right things. I’ve not been called on. I’ve gone to [Jean-Pierre’s] office to seek meetings. She said that she would meet with me next year,” he continued.
“I’ve sent questions about the Nigerian election, about, you know, the problems, challenges in Africa. And they’ve not called on me,” Ateba further asserted, adding “Even as the vice president is going to Africa, even as the first lady, Jill Biden, went to Africa, even went to receive 50 African leaders for the U.S. African summit in Washington, D.C. The guy who covers the White House, the African guy who covered the White House, is looked down upon in the greatest country in the world, in the most advanced country, where freedom of speech is protected.”
Ateba took to twitter to further highlight the hypocrisy of the press corps, and highlight how the rest of the establishment media fell into line to attack him or accuse him of causing chaos:
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