Joe Biden is supposed to be preparing to be the leader of the free world, yet is still calling lids. Politico’s Ryan Lizza is not happy.

Discouraging signs about the Biden team and press access so far: no regular transition briefings, no readouts of calls with foreign leaders (as noted by @AlxThomp in pool report today), no open press access to the candidate and his people. This is a break with tradition.

— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) November 10, 2020

Lizza begins his tome saying the biggest stories are that President Trump refuses to concede the election and that Republican leaders remain silent on this. He then does what every legacy media reporter loves to do: attribute behavior and actions to President Trump that are pure speculation and wish-casting.

“At noon on Jan. 20, 2021, Joseph R. Biden Jr. will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. Trump’s aides tell me he’s unlikely to concede, he’s unlikely to invite Biden to the White House, and he’s unlikely to attend Biden’s inauguration. How ugly he makes things for Biden over the next few weeks will dominate the news.”

Lizza is signaling to his cub reporters and comrades what the narrative is supposed to be. Lizza channels his inner Miss Cleo and predicts 1) Biden will be inaugurated; and 2) Trump will make things ugly.

“Why is this even worth pointing out? Because, as in the campaign, Trump’s dominance of the media continues to blot out coverage of Biden.”

Wahhh!!!!! Biden should be getting all the attention! Biden should have his moment!

It’s all Trump’s fault!

Nothing new to see here.

Lizza tries to conflate the Biden “transition” team’s lack of transparency to a “Trump norm.” It amazes me that Politico’s editor failed to catch Lizza’s use of “Trump” and “Norms” in the same sentence. I’m sure we’ll see it disappear soon.

Lizza rails on—all emphases belong to him.

“Beat reporters covering Biden tell me that the basement strategy of the 2020 campaign has continued into the transition. Traditionally transition officials begin holding regular press briefings immediately after the race is called.”

As much as Lizza and legacy media want it to be so, the race has not been called. CNN, AP, and Fox News do not select the President. The American people and the Electoral College do.

But carry on.

“In 1992, for example, these seemed to have started as early as Nov. 6, three days after the election that year.”

Interesting that Lizza chooses to go back almost 30 years. Interesting that he bypassed 2000, which was not decided until 37 days after the election. But continue your mewling.

“The 2020 race was called on Saturday morning, and as of this evening there was no plan announced by Team Biden to hold these traditional briefings.

“The press is being kept in the dark about what exactly the president-elect is doing most of the day beyond vague descriptions of “internal meetings.” Biden’s schedule for Wednesday simply reads, “President-elect Joe Biden will meet with transition advisors.”

I’m not sure how he can conflate Joe Biden’s inability to stay awake more than 2 hours at a time, and the “norm” of how Trump handled the press.

I digest a lot of media, legacy and otherwise. I am old enough to remember that Trump tweets constantly, and Lizza’s bunch delights in reading them like tea leaves and prognosticating, or fact-checking them. Twitter now deletes or flags them, which never happens to the pablum and bromides that transmit from the Biden account.

Trump also did lots of Tarmac Pressers over his first term, and fielded questions off the cuff and unfiltered. How does that compare to Slow Joe taking 5 pre-approved questions after a canned speech?

And let’s not forget the Coronavirus Briefings that many of your brothers and sisters refused to cover.

But do piss and moan about how the press is “being kept in the dark” by the so-called Biden transition team and draw parallels with how the Trump administration has handled the press. Trump wasn’t the one who turned off the lights.

Just saying…

“During the campaign, Biden selected reporters at random as he glanced around the room. Today a press aide controlled who got to ask questions, which were limited to five outlets.

“As someone who has aggressively covered, and sometimes overreacted to, the long list of norms broken by Trump over the last few years, I don’t discount Trump’s final act of norm-breaking. It is obviously crucial for reporters to cover the Trump transition story.”

Lizza and legacy media aren’t concerned about “access”, they are concerned with their tenuous control over the narrative. They are the only ones chasing a “transition story” because widespread election fraud would expose their inability to do the work of a free press.

But yeah, it’s that bad Orange Man’s fault.

“But it’s equally important — maybe more important — to aggressively document what Trump-established norms the new party in power will quietly hope to preserve.

There has been no hiding in the basement from the Trump administration. Every form of media covered the Trump rallies, which were promptly labeled Super Spreader events by the legacy ones. The White House has held Press Briefings, but the Press Secretary was attacked with stupid questions. And did I mention the constant tweets that your ilk has demanded be censored?

“If Biden can build a government and discuss foreign policy with world leaders, he and his people can make themselves accessible to the press.

“The Trump era is over. Biden is about to be the most powerful man in the world.”

Keep telling yourself that. Trump still lives rent-free in your head, and will continue to do so no matter who occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue after January 20, 2021.

Cry more, journo.