White House reporters have complained that the Biden transition team disabled the “chat” feature in Zoom meetings to prevent reporters from asking questions freely.
In a meeting using the video software Zoom, reporters pressed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s transition team to take more questions, but the team disabled the “chat” feature, which allows reporters to speak freely.
On Wednesday (Dec. 30), Sam Stein, the incoming White House editor for Politico, tweeted, “The Biden transition team appears to have disabled public chat on the team’s Zoom calls. The Biden transition team seems to have disabled the public chat feature in the team’s Zoom calls. I and others have complained to them before and wish they would take more questions.”
Now, reporters in the meeting will have to use the “show of hands” feature to indicate they want to ask questions.
In a Dec. 18 meeting, the Biden team answered only five questions, much to the frustration of Stein and other reporters, Fox News reported.
Stein wrote in the “chat” at the time, “Hey guys, there are tons of people who want to ask questions. Since (the meetings) are only once a week, can we have longer or at least more frequent briefings?”
Zeke Miller, the Associated Press’ White House correspondent, continued, “Is there any way you can answer more questions? There are a lot of people here who want to ask questions.”
Andrew Feinberg, a reporter who writes for several media outlets, also said, “If you’re just naming a few regular people [to ask questions] every week, does it make sense to say we want to ask questions?”
The Biden transition team has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Last month, T.J. Ducklo, press secretary for the Biden campaign, also told CNN that Biden believes “transparency is very important” regarding his relationship with the media.
“He (Biden) also believes that it’s the media’s job to hold him accountable.” Duclos said, “He just works for the people, and he welcomes that relationship (with the media). He welcomes their role, which is the role that the media plays in our democracy. Frankly, I think it’s going to be the opposite (of what) we’ve seen in the last four years… I think you’re going to see a dramatic change in the way the White House approaches the media.”
Zoom, on the other hand, is a San Jose, California-based company whose founder, Eric Yuan, is a Chinese immigrant and now a U.S. citizen. According to Zoom’s regulatory filings earlier this year, the company’s development team is “primarily” based in China.
Zoom has also come under fire for exposing its ties to the Chinese Communist Party. According to recent court documents filed by U.S. federal prosecutors, an executive at the company worked with Communist authorities to provide user data outside of China to ensure access to the Chinese market.
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