Apparently there wasn't enough fauxtrage over at Fox News this morning with all of the Israel-Palestine news, so they decided to invent something.
At 8:56 AM, a grumbly John Roberts tweeted this bit of nonsense, complaining that the White House had called a "lid" a few minutes earlier. For those who aren't privy to Beltway press speak, a "lid" means the president has no more public-facing events scheduled for the day. I got the same notice Roberts did and shrugged, figuring that Biden had a full plate with American hostages, a blown-out Middle East peace process, many dead Israelis and Palestinians, possible Iran involvement, and more. Seems like a Situation Room kind of day, without the press demanding blow-by-blow events.
Of course, that immediately blew up on the platform formerly known as Twitter, where wingers were just full of fauxtrage. Here's a taste of Stephen Miller, if you can stand it:
No, a lid does not mean reporters can go home because no more news is happening, but when has Miller ever uttered anything true? I did feel compelled to reply:
And after a couple of hours of being trashed for creating controversy where none need exist, Roberts offered a weak defense:
I don't know that John Roberts has ever covered the White House in the middle of a raging Middle East war that could combust into something none of us want to see. And I guess he's never heard of the term press release either, which is why Martha MacCallum dragged out John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council for a strong grilling. Because apparently he had nothing better to do than tamp down the smoldering hate for our current commander-in-chief for daring to work instead of pander to the press all day. That video is above. Fortunately, Kirby smacked down all of the crap they were flinging.
MacCallum didn't waste time, going right for the main subject at hand, which is not the raging war, or the dead people, or the kidnapped Americans. No, here was her question: "So the president, the White House called a lid on the president at 1146 a.m. this morning. Given what is going on, John, why would that be?"
And if this was a tennis match, Kirby smashed the ball right out of her reach:
"Well, a lid means that he doesn't have any more public-facing events," Kirby explained. "It doesn't mean that the president's not working, and he absolutely is working."
He went on to list what the White House was doing and what specifically Biden would be doing. Talking to foreign leaders, getting updated with the national security team, putting together a statement so everyone would know what is going on, but that wasn't enough for Martha. On she went.
After confirming that Biden was in the White House and continuing to work, MacCallum went for another ace, but ended up being slammed.
"So why put a lid on today?" she pressed. "You know, I mean, there might be multiple opportunities when he might want to come out and address some of what's going on, given this urgent situation. You've got American hostages in Israel and nine Americans dead. So doesn't that seem like a little odd to do on a Monday?"
To which Kirby returned a dose of reality. "A lid, again, is an administrative decision about whether or not there's a scheduled public event after the fact," he explained again.
"But obviously, lids can be lifted," he added. Which is why they're called lids. They can be slammed down and they can be lifted up. And Fox News knows that. John Roberts knows that. Martha MacCallum knows that. But instead of letting the people do their jobs in a crisis, they invented a communications "crisis" in order to slam Biden and make "news" for their hateful "news" channel.
It's really wrong that they're allowed to exist. The FCC ought to just yank their license altogether, because they poison this country far more than they enlighten it.
