MSNBC's Joy Reid: Biden 'has a point' to complain about the media: Journalists obsess with 'conflict'

MSNBC host Joy Reid was sympathetic to President Biden's complaints about the media during her appearance on "The Late Show" Tuesday.

CBS host Stephen Colbert quoted the president from last week's marathon press conference when he said members of the media "talk about how nothing has happened in his first year. And the fact of the matter is we got an awful lot done."

MSNBC'S JOY REID SUGGESTS GOP HAS ‘HATRED’ FOR BIDEN BECAUSE HE WAS VP TO ‘THE BLACK PRESIDENT’

"Is that a fair complaint by Joe Biden?" Colbert asked. "Because there is a whole lot of talk in the media – no offense, also MSNBC, about the agenda stalling. And, you know, I'm sure he'd like to get everything done or hit this baseline to get everything done. What do you make of his first year and is he right to complain about the description?"

"I think, you know, all presidents complain about the press. You know, President Obama didn't like the press. No one really likes the press when you work in politics because you're never going to get the coverage you want. But I think, in one sense, Biden has a point," Reid responded. "I think that the media, you know, I like to say that, you know, the media does have two biases, right? Change and conflict, right? So if we see change, we run toward that."

"President Obama, that was an exciting sort of change in America's culture and politics. And the media will gravitate toward change and conflict. But the media doesn't want to be in conflict necessarily with the president but the idea of almost like a sports-like conflict between the parties is kind of where the media tends to go," Reid said.

"That's not necessarily healthy when we're dealing with, like, the decline of democracy, which is actually not a sporting event, and we should probably take that seriously, and there are two sides and there is one right side to being for and against democracy. And I think the media has failed there. But I think also, you know, complicated things like inflation and economics. It's just easier to cover a sporting event."

The far-left "ReidOut" host went on to defend Biden, saying how Republicans and Democrats "lay things at the feet of the president when you might not be able to do anything about it."

JOY REID SAYS KYLE RITTENHOUSE ACQUITTAL TRACES BACK TO ‘SLAVE CATCHERS,’ BLM ACTIVISTS SHOULD BE ‘AFRAID’

"I doubt any president can reverse inflation. It's just not a thing they do," Reid told Colbert. "So I think that yes, in a sense, there has been ‘policy is boring.’ And so the media won't cover [these] sort of policies that are just working their way normally through Congress, and he signs them."

Colbert then asked if the criticism of the Biden administration is fair for having failed to get Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin, W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, Ariz., to roll back the filibuster in order to get the voting bills passed, wondering if there was "anything" that the president "could have done."

"Biden's gonna get that I think doubly because he is a man of the Senate. And he did run, proclaiming that he could create this bipartisanship and that he could make certain things happen," Reid said. "If I had to give one big criticism to the administration, I think they made one big mistake. When you're negotiating, particularly with difficult parties like Joe Manchin … you don't negotiate by saying, ‘Let me just give you everything you want. Now, can I get something?’" 

Reid said Biden lost leverage with Manchin after the signing of the infrastructure bill.

"There's nothing left to give him he does not want Build Back Better. That's clear. He does not care about the child tax credit. He clearly doesn't care about, you know, anything that's going to help the poor like, you know, he's on his yacht, he's got his Maserati, he doesn't care," she said.

ELON MUSK FIRES BACK AT MSNBC'S JOY REID FOR KNOCKING WARREN DIGS, CALLS HER A ‘LOBBYIST FOR SEN KAREN’

Before wrapping up the interview, the "Late Show" host pressed Reid about her "scaring is caring" philosophy when it comes to covering the news and what the "line" is between scaring and "providing anxiety to an audience unnecessarily for the eyeballs."

"This is probably the thing we talk about most during our lengthy morning call that can go on, and on, and on because we really do care about what we're talking about," Reid responded. "I mean, one of the reasons I love my job is that I'm doing and talking about things that I deeply care about. I really am concerned about our democracy. And I'm not just saying that to do ‘scaring is caring.’ I'm worried, you know, that we're going to a place in this country that we won't be able to pull back from. And if we go too far and lose – I mean, democracies fall fast."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Reid, who has called Republicans a "COVID-loving death cult," said it's important for the show to be joyful.