Update: Fox News has issued a statement in response to Jen Psaki’s comment: 

“In his role as White House correspondent, Peter Doocy’s job is to elicit truth from power for the American public. His questions are his own, he is a terrific reporter and we are extremely proud of his work.”

Remember when we were all assured that the Biden administration would bring back a return of so-called norms and decency? Gone would be the days of mean tweets and personal insults, replaced by the sharing of lollipops and rainbows.

The press specifically swooned over White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. She was going to bring back “transparency” and honesty, absconding from the ethical breaches that supposedly plagued Donald Trump’s staff. Chris Wallace, a staunch critic of the prior administration, even praised her as one of the best to ever hold her position.

How’d that work out? Well, Psaki has turned out to be one of the most dishonest (see here, here, and here for examples), unethical press secretaries in history, just as some of us predicted. To cap that off, she’s recently negotiated a deal with MSNBC for her own partisan opinion show. Meanwhile, she continues to operate in her official capacity, and while doing so recently, she doubled down on an obscene smear of Peter Doocy that was originally made by Joe Biden.

Jen Psaki is asked if “Peter Doocy is a stupid son of a bitch or does he just play one on tv:”

“He works for a network that provides people with questions that, nothing personal to any individual including Peter Doocy, but might make anyone sound like a stupid son of a bitch.” pic.twitter.com/2FYMPX12Rr

— Eugene Daniels (@EugeneDaniels2) April 15, 2022

Isn’t she just hilarious? You see, Peter Doocy is actually a “stupid son of a b****,” but that’s only because that dastardly Fox News forces him to be one. Go ahead and soak in all the norms and decency being bestowed on Americans, and send thanks to the heavens that we don’t have mean tweets anymore.

The ethical breach here is just astonishing. One, Psaki and her party spent years telling us that it’s a danger to democracy to directly attack the free press. Trump would have CNN’s Jim Acosta nearly in tears after accusing liberal outlets of spreading fake news. Yet, Psaki, and even Biden himself, consistently attack Fox News as not just a partisan opponent, but as somehow dangerous and evil. The hypocrisy is off the charts.

Worse, while Psaki is making these kinds of comments as a taxpayer-funded member of the US government, she’s already worked out a lucrative deal with MSNBC to garner a primetime show in which she will spew talking points in support of the current regime. Imagine for a moment that Kayleigh McEnany, the last person to hold Psaki’s role in the Trump administration, had done that? Do you think the press would be losing its mind over the massive ethical violation that represents?

Again, this is a person representing MSNBC, attacking a rival network, while getting paid by taxpayers. Ivanka Trump telling people to buy Goya beans was a scandal, but this isn’t?

Jen Psaki, who has lined up a MSNBC gig, lashes out at rival network, while getting paid by taxpayers https://t.co/jvSTDjvqXt

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) April 15, 2022

But because it’s Psaki, they just shrug and continue to sing her praises. That kind of double standard is just gross. If the news industry will accept that, what won’t they accept as long as it’s coming from their own “team?” Yet, we are continually told the fourth estate is vital to our democracy? I don’t see it. These partisans work directly in conjunction with Democrat elected officials to push chosen narratives, ignoring inconvenient scandals along the way. What’s vital about that?