Last week, after a “Bidenomics” event in New Mexico, Peter Doocy of Fox News approached the president to ask about the latest kernel of intrigue in the ongoing Hunter Biden scandal—the allegation that Hunter would sometimes put his powerful father on speakerphone to talk business with clients. “I never talked business with anyone,” Biden retorted. “I knew you had a lousy question.” Biden walked off with a scowl on his face, while Doocy landed another spicy sound bite that Fox could air over and over, on television, YouTube, and beyond.

Doocy said that Biden had actually waved him over to talk, a departure from the president’s usual habit of avoiding shouted questions from reporters. What jumped out at me from Doocy’s on-air recap, though, was that he also uttered a bit of self-own—not about himself or Fox News necessarily, but about the broader impulses of the White House press corps. “He wanted to talk about the transition to the green economy, he did not want to talk about [Hunter],” Doocy explained.