New York Times (NYT) publisher A.G. Sulzberger said Monday that their coverage of President Joe Biden’s age has made the White House “extremely upset.”
During an interview with The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Sulzberger said, “We are going to continue to report fully and fairly, not just on Donald Trump but also on President Joe Biden.”
“He is a historically unpopular incumbent and the oldest man to ever hold this office. We’ve reported on both of those realities extensively, and the White House has been extremely upset about it,” he continued.
Biden’s age has garnered intense scrutiny in recent weeks after special counsel Robert Hur declined to pursue criminal charges against Biden despite describing him as willfully possessing classified information. Hur said Biden, if forced to sit trial, “would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 19: U.S. President Joe Biden steps away after speaking briefly with reporters after returning to the White House on February 19, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
White House spokesman Ian Sams then sent a letter to the White House press corps arguing outlets were reporting “striking inaccuracies that misrepresent the report’s conclusion about the President.” (RELATED: CNN’s Elie Honig Slams White House Response To Hur Report. Biden Official Lashes Out On Twitter)
“Reporters in the White House Briefing Room have asked questions that include false content or are based on false premises,” Sams wrote in a letter that drew rebuke from White House Correspondents’ Association President Kelly O’Donnell.
O’Donnell said Sams’ letter was “misdirected” and the association “does not, cannot and will not serve as a repository for the government’s views of what’s in the news.”
Sulzberger said the public deserves to be aware of what’s going on.
“We are not saying that this is the same as Trump’s five court cases or that they are even,” Sulzberger told Reuters. “They are different. But they are both true, and the public needs to know both those things. And if you are hyping up one side or downplaying the other, no side has a reason to trust you in the long run.”