Brandon’s people probably enjoy that the “Influencers” will not ask inconvenient question, but, then, how many in the White House press pool ask hard questions, other than Peter Doocy?
White House Briefed TikTok Influencers on Ukraine: ‘A Press Briefing for Kindergartners’
The White House on Thursday held a special briefing for 30 TikTok influencers on Ukraine, in the Biden administration’s apparent continuing attempt to use the platform and its young users to get out its message.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that the White House gathered the TikTok users to “receive key information” about the war in Ukraine.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and National Security Council staffers briefed them about the U.S.’s “strategic goals in the region” and answered questions on distributing aid to Ukrainians, working with NATO, and how the U.S. would react if Russia used nuclear weapons, according to the report.
Cool, using the Chinese owned Tiktok to push their talking points. Here’s one of the “influencers”
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1502373534193967105
It’s amazing to me that people tune in for this stuff. In fairness, more people seem to check in there than places like CNN
Some influencers told the Post after the call that they felt more “empowered to debunk misinformation and communicate effectively about the crisis.” TikTok said Thursday it would be labeling state-controlled media on its platform.
One of the influencers on the call, Ukrainian-born journalist Jules Suzdaltsev, said the overall tone of the briefing was too soft and that officials dodged hard questions.
“The energy of the call felt like a press briefing for kindergartners,” he told the Post.
It was. And Brandon officials typically dodge questions, especially Jen Psaki. From the Washington Post piece
The invitations to the event were distributed Tuesday and Wednesday. Kahlil Greene, 21, a creator with more than 534,000 followers on TikTok, said he wasn’t surprised when an invitation arrived in his email inbox. “People in my generation get all our information from TikTok,” he said. “It’s the first place we’re searching up new topics and learning about things.” So, he figured, it made sense that the Biden administration would engage people like him on the platform.
I mean, he has a point (between lots of his racial videos): the young are getting their “news” there, and, really, is it that much worse than the regular news outlets? There have been some great videos of the things actually happening in Ukraine. If these “content creators” (which means speaking into your phone from your living room, typically about subjects they have no idea about) are going to do this, they need to toughen up and ask hard questions en masse. Don’t let politicians gaslight them.
Read: Good Grief: White House Holds Briefings With TikTok “Influencers” »