Usefulness Over: After Defending Playboy’s Brian Karem from Donald Trump the Correspondents Association Pulls His Credentials Under Biden

With their main target gone there is little use for the rabid reporter any longer, it seems.

Throughout the Trump administration, the contentious relationship between the press and the President was perpetual. While there was ample criticism of President Trump for displaying an unprofessional or unpresidential demeanor at times – much of it earned – there was little in the way of equal criticism leveled at the members of the press when they behaved in likewise deplorable ways.

While Jim Acosta is renown for his preening self-congratulatory style while covering the White House lesser known was the equally self-centered and far more crass behavior from Brian Karem, reporter for Playboy Magazine. Karem’s tenure as a correspondent had been filled with conflicts with many in the Trump administration, from the President on down to the Press Secretary, and others on the staff. Well, it appears now with the departure of Trump from the D.C. area, that tenure of Karem’s has come to an end.

The rabid reporter sent out a message announcing that as of this weekend he no longer will be credentialed to have access to the renewed daily press briefings. The White House Correspondents Association has denied Karem his renewed membership to the WHCA.

This morning at 9 a.m. EST my latest column for Playboy posted – one in which I criticized the WHCA for a conflict of interest. At 10:32 a.m. I was informed by the WHCA that my request for membership this year has been declined. Guess I won’t go to the dinner this year! pic.twitter.com/wEVoOHt1eP

— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) January 29, 2021

Brian stipulates that what may have caused his denial was his recent column where he had been critical of the Covid safety measures being imposed upon the White House press corps of late. In his trademark fashion of making himself the story, Karem groused about the new stricter protocols, even hailing the journalists for their exemplary adherence to safety over the past year. 

The NFL has managed to have a relatively productive season and has been cheered for its efforts. The White House press corps has arguably managed to do better than the NFL, but we haven’t been cheered for our efforts. In fact, we’re being sanctioned despite them. 

Heroes, the lot of them — as always.

Karem’s claim here does not hold up. While critical, his piece was hardly the stuff of gasping offenses. The bulk of the piece was concerning how tough these new standards would be on him, and his ability to do his job. For instance, he explains that he was previously permitted to ask the key question about transferring power of President Trump, back in September, which later sparked the Capitol riots. (Yes, he really makes that claim.)

What seems far more likely is that the WHCA no longer sees a need to have the acidic personality of Karem in the White House pool any longer. This is the man who routinely would shout out provocative questions as Trump is walking off, or the Press Secretary was leaving, recording his bellowing queries and then posting them on social media. The guise was always made to suggest they were dodging what he hints were very deep and probing questions when in reality he was staging obnoxious visuals for his own edification.

This is the man who was cited directly by the President as a ”Loudmouth, noting at times he is an example of the unprofessional members of the media. It was as recently as two months ago when Karem referred to Kayleigh McEnany as, ‘’Moronic, insipid, inconsequential, insignificant, indefatigably insane and irrelevant. Now go get your shine box.’’

Then there is this very telling dichotomy. In 2019 Karem had disrupted a Rose Garden ceremony when he began using his patented method of shouting questions after the event wrapped. He got into an argument with then staffer Sebastian Gorka, and the episode led to Karem having his credentials revoked by the administration. He went to court to have his credentials restored — and the WHCA filed an amicus brief in support of the confrontational reporter. Now that same outfit, under a new and friendlier administration, has rescinded those same credentials for Brian that it once defended on his behalf.

It appears rather obvious why this is playing out. After seeing some of the most obnoxious behavior from Karem the WHCA not only tolerated his antics but supported them. He was clearly seen as a source of distemper that could be directed at the President and the administration. They may not have liked all of Karem’s methods, but they disliked the President more, so his actions were allowed to play out. 

Now that a friendlier Biden team has arrived the appearance is that they do not wish to have a disruptive force in the sparkly new administration. This is a new era of supportive and agreeable reporting from the journalist set, Brian. Your brand of vituperative and confrontational ‘’reporting’’ is no longer needed.