Biden White House employs ‘quote approval’

White House reporters are disgruntled about the Biden administration’s use of “quote approval,” requiring reporters to send quotes to the communication team for approval or editing. Both Obama and Trump teams used the practice, but reporters say the Biden team is using it more. Reporters are talking about banding together to object to the practice. (Politico, May 10, 2021, by Alex Thompson and Theodoric Meyer with contributions from Allie Bice)

White House press secretary Jen Psaki released a statement that largely ignore reporters protests but suggested news outlets should avoid using anonymous quotes with personal attacks or use information about internal administration processes from people who don’t work in the administration. She said the administration provides access to policy experts, but she said, “If outlets are not comfortable with that attribution for those officials they of course don’t need to utilize those voices.” (Washington Examiner, May 11, 2021, by Mica Soellner)

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