This should come as no surprise:
In an apparent effort to make his daily news conferences even more like campaign events than they already are, the White House press office has been packing the briefing room with supporters of President Donald Trump from far-right media outlets who can be relied on to toss him softball questions and initiate attacks on his political rivals.
Full details at the link above.
The article notes:
Unlike the original, freewheeling coronavirus task force briefings — which came to a sudden halt in April when Trump mused that doctors should “check” to see if injecting patients suffering from Covid-19 with bleach or isopropyl alcohol, or exposing them to ultraviolet light, might cure them — the president’s current news conferences are much shorter and seem designed mainly to get his lengthy, written opening statements on the air and get him out of the briefing room after taking just a handful of questions.
There is actually a very obvious solution to this perversion of the press conference: the major media should simply stop attending. If Trump wants to continue getting softball questions from conspiracy theorists, he can continue holding them, but if they are only covered by Fox, they will be doing him no good.
For the most part, Trump’s 2020 campaign has been mainly playing to the base, as if he needs only their votes to win. In fact, it could be easily argued that he’s gone out of his way to alienate whatever fence sitters may be out there. It’s an odd strategy that only a mentally ill person ands/or someone planning on stealing an election would employ. Should the major media refuse to cover these “press conferences” they will be facilitating that strategy, which, under the circumstances, is a good thing. It’s not at all clear that Trump can successfully steal the election, given the fact that the military, and even the courts, are unlikely to render assistance. As things stand now, the media, despite what the linked article says is its irritation at having these press conferences invaded by whackos, is simply giving these people credibility by putting them on the air on an even keel with actual journalists.