Not only has her audience of one failed to watch a number of her briefings in recent weeks — a senior administration official suggested on Friday that the president was busy with other matters — she has also encountered flagging interest from television networks; only Fox News regularly carries her briefings live, and at least one network has declined a request to have her appear on one of its shows.

All of that is leaving it increasingly unclear what purpose Ms. McEnany is filling beyond berating the news media from the briefing room podium…

Early in Ms. McEnany’s tenure, she was praised by conservative news media for her attacks on the mainstream press. But since then, she has so far struggled to make the briefings compelling enough — or credible enough — to refocus the attention on what the administration hopes to highlight instead of the pandemic…

But for all that, Ms. McEnany’s predecessors also understood the value in working with reporters, even when it was not something Mr. Trump encouraged.