The Biden White House will not tolerate disruptions during Propaganda Hour, otherwise known as the daily press briefing.
Monday on the social media platform X, journalist Simon Ateba of Today News Africa posted the full text of a letter he reportedly received from the office of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — a letter threatening to restrict his access to all White House “press-related events.”
We “warned you of the consequences that could result” from your behavior, the letter read in part.
That behavior, of course — and White House officials’ general attitude toward speech and people they dislike — constitutes the story here.
First, there is the immediate context for the letter from Jean-Pierre’s office.
“As I mentioned earlier, she deliberately closed the press briefing on Thursday to claim that I disrupted it, which is entirely false,” Ateba wrote on X.
On Thursday, with Angola President João Lourenço visiting the White House that afternoon, Ateba tried to ask a question of National Security Counsel spokesman John Kirby. Jean-Pierre shut down Ateba’s question and, after some brief back-and-forth with the journalist, abruptly ended the press briefing.
Later on Thursday, Ateba took to social media to protest.
“I am highly