If you need any more proof of the institutional leftism in J-schools…

It is a rather telling lesson when you see a college professor from a journalism institution who is lending advice in how to combat journalists. As odd as that sounds, that is precisely something taking place right now, as noted leftist firebrand and professor of journalism Jay Rosen has recently offered some advice to the White House in how to deal with those rascally reporters. Seems a curious position to take for one who is charged with molding the minds of those reporters.

Rosen was responding to a column penned by noted liberal columnist E.J.Dionne, at the Washington Post, where he had glowing words of praise for Joe Biden after his wheels-up-in-a-ditch press conference on Thursday. Instead of laughter Rosen saw the column as cause to lend some advice to Press Secretary Jen Psaki on how to respond to questions in order to put those reporters back on their heels.

Next time a White House correspondent asks Jen Psaki if the president is willing to be "bipartisan," she should ask — politely — which definition of the term the correspondent has in mind: voter-centric bipartisanship, or the politician-based kind. https://t.co/t507EUcX34

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) March 29, 2021

Recall a time when journalists were approaching their job from the perspective that they were charged with the task of challenging politicians and making them uncomfortable? Their job used to be to act as the voice on behalf of their readers and hold politicians accountable. It is rather obvious that Rosen is approaching things not from the perspective of journalism but bias, as he is instructing Psaki on how to manage the correspondents.

The humor is found in the way Rosen approached Psaki’s predecessor in the White House. When Kayleigh McEnany was the spokesperson the good professor was not so fond of lending his advice to her on how to deal with the press. Instead, he was rather critical of the fact that Donald Trump’s mouthpiece was challenging the media. ‘’She was hired to dump on the press,’’ Jay has said with contempt. He even had shamed the then press corps for tolerating her style.

From her first day Rosen declared she would be a battler against the media, and he said so not with advice on how to battle the reporters. He was mournful over the combative nature.

Before her first briefing today, I want to remind people that @PressSec is a culture war appointment. She was hired to fight with the press on TV, and to address a narcissistic wound: that no one was defending him hard enough against… whom? Journalists! So that's your primer.

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) May 1, 2020

Not long after she got her footing there was no other approach but that this was an unacceptable position she was presenting. Basically all of Rosen’s measurements of McEnany’s performances were of the ‘’How dare she!’’ variety.

Which is why I keep saying of Kayleigh McEnany: She was hired to fight with the press. Not spin, not spar. When the press shows up to be fought with, it completes the logic of the appointment.

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) July 5, 2020

Put a Democrat in the White House however, and all of that changes. Suddenly the professor is coaching not the reporters, of which he is in charge, but the administration. He is not defending the work of the correspondents but lending guidance to those in charge in how to overcome the challenges from that group. It is remarkable to see this shift, but it also is not surprising.

Once you see a journalism professor taking the side of the politicians — the very target journalists are supposed to challenge — all because of what party they are from you understand the behavior we have seen in the press the past couple of months. Journalists hailed the administration and Jen Psaki from the first day, they have swallowed the talking points delivered, and even have been busy heaping praise on a press conference we all witnessed to be a fiasco.

You grasp how the press is in the tank for the Democrats once you see a teacher of journalists dictating how to get those journalists in line with the proper messaging.