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On any given day there is a White House press briefing, there will be at least two or three (if not more) adversarial moments between press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and press corps reporters. She comes prepared for battle. They don’t like it. And it goes from there. It’s just the nature of the beast.

While today was no different, one moment, in particular, stood out among the rest, even surpassing the earlier controversy involving an Al Jazeera English reporter who many believed called McEnany the “b” word. The White House has since confirmed AJE correspondent Kimberly Halkett’s account that she said something completely different.

The moment that stood out to me was as McEnany was drawing the briefing to a close, and scolding the New York Times for a critical report they did Monday on White House coronavirus task force members including response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx. Here’s what McEnany said:

“Dr. Birx is an extraordinary doctor who served this country, dedicated her time to serving our country as an Army colonel. She served as an ambassador to PEPFAR, where she spent her life fighting AIDS and HIV abroad, and it is appalling the attack that I saw on her in The New York Times, based on no facts,” McEnany said, holding a large binder of coronavirus data.

“Dr. Birx for weeks has been sending out this data to governors, 400 pages of data to our governors, so they have the best information to make the best decisions for their people and their respective states. I have not seen anyone poring over data the way Dr. Birx has and the attack on her was frankly appalling and egregious and The New York Times should be very ashamed of themselves,” McEnany said.

As McEnany walked away from the podium with her notebook in hand, a reporter who sounded like he was in the back of the room disrespectfully yelled: “Hey Kayleigh, put on a mask!” McEnany kept walking.

Watch:

"Hey Kayleigh, put on a mask!"

The media really think screaming demands at @PressSec is "journalism."pic.twitter.com/1CyARnf9nK

— The First (@TheFirstonTV) July 21, 2020

The “reporter” was Playboy White House correspondent and CNN political analyst Brian Karem, a notoriously unprofessional journalist who has clashed with the White House in the past. He bragged about yelling at McEnany on his Twitter feed:

“Hey Kayleigh put on a mask!” @realDonaldTrump @PressSec pic.twitter.com/JKXZ4IBO39

— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) July 21, 2020

Yes. It was.

— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) July 21, 2020

The White House revoked Karem’s press pass at one point last year for 30 days over his ridiculous “look at me!” stunts but a judge overruled the decision, and his credentials were restored.

It’s easy to see why the White House does such things when you watch how performance “journalists” like Karem (and CNN’s Jim Acosta) conduct themselves during serious briefings. In fact, Karem’s fellow reporters in the press corps will rush to defend his antics while at the same time working to get conservative news outlets like OANN kicked out. Makes no sense until you understand that the only difference between Karem and the rest of the WH press corps is that he has even less control over his bias and obsession with being the center of attention than the rest of them do.

Rest assured no such questions like the one below will be asked of Karem, even though it should be:

Someone left this note for the OAN personality at the White House: “Do you think your question was helpful in halting the spread of the coronavirus?” pic.twitter.com/Jy8rzVs5Y0

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 19, 2020

As I’ve said before, someone in the White House in a position to do so should appoint a babysitter to both the daily press briefings and the coronavirus task force press briefings because clearly one is needed to mind the children masquerading as diligent mainstream media reporters during the pandemic crisis.

(Hat tip: Scott Whitlock at Newsbusters)