White House defends Biden’s Indian media ‘better behaved’ than US press remark

The White House has tried to pacify an upset American media over Joe Biden's off the cuff remarks that the Indian media is "better behaved" than their US counterparts, with a senior official saying the President's comments were not meant as a "hard cut" on them. US President Joe Biden during his first in-person bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Friday praised the Indian media than the US Media,criticising American reporters for asking questions that are not "on point" in front of a foreign head of government/state.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday faced a number of questions on Joe Biden's comments from American journalists but defended the President's remarks. "I think what he said is that they're not always "on point." Now, I know that isn't something that anyone wants to hear here. But what I think he was conveying is, you know, today, he might want to talk about COVID vaccines; some of the questions were about that. He might want to talk about - and some of the questions are not always about the topic he's talking about that day," Ms Psaki said. At the White House briefing, another reporter objected to the comparison between Indian and the American media.

The reporter said, "The Indian press is ranked 142nd in the world, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), for press freedoms. How does he say that about the US press compared to the Indian press?" According to Reporters Without Borders, the US media is ranked 44 for press freedoms. To this Ms Psaki said, "I would just say to you that having now worked for the President - serving in this role for nine months, having seen that he's taking questions from the press more than 140 times.. that he certainly respects the role of the press, the role of the freedom of the free press."