Is The New York Times running more stories on Joe Biden’s age and other criticism because the president won’t sit down for an exclusive interview with the newspaper?
Yes, or at least, they’re being encouraged to by the paper’s publisher, AG Sulzberger, and other top brass, according to a NYT journalist who spoke POLITICO’s Eli Stokols in his new piece titled “The Petty Feud Between the NYT and the White House.”
From the report:
“As Sulzberger often tells colleagues and as he and (Times’ Executive Editor Joe) Kahn have stressed in private conversations with the administration, every modern president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has done an interview with the Times. That, however, is an argument deemed uncompelling by Biden aides and one that, to some White House officials, smacks of entitlement. ...
“In Sulzberger’s view, according to two people familiar with his private comments on the subject, only an interview with a paper like the Times can verify that the 81-year-old Biden is still fit to hold the presidency. Beyond that, he has voiced concerns that Biden doing so few expansive interviews with experienced reporters could set a dangerous precedent for future administrations, according to a third person familiar with the publisher’s thinking. Sulzberger himself was part of a group from the Times that sat down with Trump, who gave the paper several interviews despite his rantings about its coverage. If Trump could do it, Sulzberger believes, so can Biden.
“All these Biden people think that the problem is Peter Baker or whatever reporter they’re mad at that day,” one Times journalist said. “It’s A.G. He’s the one who is pissed [that] Biden hasn’t done any interviews and quietly encourages all the tough reporting on his age.”
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.
