Sullivan gives up a pawn in her Substack article by admitting that Biden’s age makes him a less than ideal candidate for a second presidential term, and another when she acknowledges that he “never” was ” a gifted speaker” (talk about understatement), and yet another when she says he “makes cringe-inducing mistakes.” She observes that her age “is really a legitimate concern for many voters.”
But after taking note of her presentation against Biden, she explains that the press should be lighter on the president because “Trump is on the verge of destroying American democracy on day one.” Because Trump faces numerous criminal charges, including for trying to overturn the 2020 election. And because Trump is “old and gaffe-prone himself.”
For the media to make Biden’s mental state “the overarching issue of the campaign is nothing short of journalistic malpractice,” Sullivan writes.
There are so many assumptions tied to this statement that you’ll never be able to untangle them – but let’s try. The idea that the Times or the general press makes Biden’s brain the primary issue of the campaign is absurd. The ink is still wet on the Hur report. THE Times News and opinion journalists approached Biden’s shortcomings from multiple angles, because that’s what the media does with major stories like the special prosecutor’s investigation. They, to use an expression once popular at the time Times“
flood the area.”
Downplaying the importance of the Hur report would have been the ultimate act of journalistic malpractice. If anything, the slow march of the press thus far into Biden’s brain is closer to journalistic malpractice than the multitude of stories that the Times placed on
Page oneon the
Editorial pagein columns by
Maureen Dowd,
Ross Douthat,
Brett Stephens,
Nick Fox and elsewhere.
Sullivan compares the Times» Biden’s recent coverage with what she and others consider to be overinformation about what she calls “the alleged scandal over Hillary Clinton’s email practices.” Nice try, but the Clinton emails were a story, deserving of new reporting every moment between May 2015 – when the first emails were released by the State Department – until
November 2016, arrival date of the 19th drop.
Why didn’t the press cover Biden’s mental fog better? There seemed to be no problem assuming that Donald Trump had gone crazy while in office.
The answer could be that his men are hiding it from journalists, by keeping a
few press conferences where it can be observed. Biden’s aversion to exposure has become so extreme that for the second year in a row, he
refused the traditional session interview with the network broadcasting the Super Bowl. A strange choice for a president running for re-election. The reflexive answer might be that the press loves Democrats and lures them in on certain occasions. Such a thesis would require investigation beyond the scope of this column, but for what it’s worth, I’ve now worked in two newsrooms covering national political news and have never heard such sentiments expressed aloud or peddled in secret. That said, I remain open to the idea that bias plays a role, but I demand evidence beyond anecdote. And finally, our culture still practices an ethic of “respect for one’s elders,” with many considering it inappropriate to criticize older people when they do what older people do. Perhaps the Hur report gave the press the permission structure it was looking for to finally talk about Biden’s supposed decline. It’s always easier to be the second to say the emperor is naked.
Some might think it is embarrassing for democracy that the long-suppressed debate over Biden’s mental vigor is taking place now as the campaign kicks into high gear and could hamper Biden’s ambitions for another term. while benefiting another candidate who is carrying more baggage than one baggage. car.
Although journalism can contribute usefully to democracies, it should never allow itself to be enlisted by a candidate or a party to enrich or bury truthful stories that some believe could harm democracy. If Biden’s batteries are as weak as they appear to be, he has done himself no favors
defensive press conference he held last week about the Hur report – then suppressing the story about his condition is one of the worst wounds the press can inflict on democracy.
Running for a weakened candidate because his opponent is considered a monster – or even appearing to run – will do nothing to restore the “trust” in the media that so many polls have found lacking. If you can’t trust the public with the absolute truth about a candidate, what good is democracy?
Sullivan writes that she wishes Times Publisher AG Sulzberger is reportedly asking its opinion editor and top editor to stop “going too far in coverage and commentary about Biden’s age” and to “tone it down.” We can only hope that Sulzberger stays in his office playing Wordle. THE Times covered a true story as a major newspaper should. And in fact, the paper is following, not public interest in Biden’s age and abilities. In a
NBC News Poll Released days before the Hur report was released, 76% of all voters and 54% of Democratic Party voters said they had major or moderate concerns that Biden has the mental and physical health necessary for a second term.
A renewed democratic interest in the president’s mental state seems to confirm the Times‘ blanket. We can only hope that the paper continues to go “overboard.” If anything, Hur appears to have finally begun to check Biden’s mental acuity, something the press and his party should have done long ago.
******
Why do we need a sportscaster to tell us the truth about Biden? On a recent
Bill Maher episode, Bob Costas said this: “If Biden’s hubris is such that he doesn’t understand the best interests of his party, and more importantly, his country, then he needs to be shown the door. Period. Because if Trump is a threat to democracy, and he is in many ways, so are Democrats, who risk being as thoughtless as Republicans have been for a long time.” Send valentines and love notes to democracy at
(email protected). No new email alert subscriptions are being honored at this time. My
Twitter And
Topics accounts hope that when they grow up, they will be email accounts. My dead RSS feed craves anarchy.
