One of the old American myths, nurtured anew these days by the MAGAts, is that the mainstream media is staffed by “liberal” conspirators who plot against Republicans and protect Democratic presidents. What an absurd canard, so easily rebutted.
Three historical highlights: During the ’90s, The New York Times went wild with coverage of the Clintons’ minor Whitewater financial losses; a decade later, the paper and other “liberal” outlets abetted George W. Bush’s march to war in Iraq by trumpeting bogus leaks from pro-war sources about nonexistent weapons of mass destruction; a decade after that, we suffered the relentless coverage of “Hillary’s emails” and wall-to-wall broadcast coverage of Trump’s rally lies without a scintilla of fact-checking.
Which brings us to present day and a trio of new MSM misfires.
First prize goes to Axios, the media outlet for its breathless revelation – be still my heart! – that President Biden is so old, he uses notecards. (The graphic above is from Axios.) It reported that when he speaks at fundraisers, he is “consulting his notes to provide detailed answers, according to people familiar with the routine…Biden’s reliance on notecards to help explain his own policy positions – on questions he knows are coming – is raising concerns among some donors about Biden’s age.”
Wow. Somebody should tell Axios that John F. Kennedy, at age 46, used notecards. And that both Bush presidents plus Barack Obama did, too – but hang on, if you read deeper into the Axios story you indeed discover this: “Most recent presidents…have carried crib nites, or used teleprompters, to help guide them through various public events and meetings.” Well, duh. There’s a photo of Trump holding a cheat sheet during a meeting with gun-violence activists (Talking point #5: “I hear you”). In fact, everybody who speaks in front of people (myself included) brings notes. It’s called being prepared. And since Axios acknowledges that “most recent presidents” have done this, why do “Biden’s notecards” warrant a headline and story?
Some perspective: A president of whatever age who uses notecards to “help explain policy positions” is arguably preferable to a guy who shows up without notecards and spontaneously runs his mouth about how Black people surely like him because he’s been indicted four times for crimes.
(And here’s that guy again, in a new interview: “…whether it’s a water faucet that doesn’t put out water or a shower that no water’s – or a washing machine where you can be in the middle of the greatest waterfall, you know, you have some states that can’t get rid of their water, the washing machines, they don’t give you enough water…” Look, ma, no notecards!)
Second prize goes to The New York Times. We learned last week that the MAGA crew’s star witness in its Biden impeachment probe turned out to be a Russian asset planting Russian disinformation, but The Times decided that this latest revelation about Putin’s soft coup strategy deserved coverage on page A17 of the print edition and wayyyyy far down on the Politics page of the digital edition. Meanwhile, last Sunday morning, when President Biden racked up 96 percent of the votes in the South Carolina Democratic primary, The Times called that “an uncertain measure of wider enthusiasm” – whereas Donald Trump’s 59.8 percent win on the GOP side was ballyhooed as “a crushing blow.”
Third prize goes to NBC Nightly News for failing to give viewers some necessary context. After the Alabama Supreme Court released its theocratic ruling that imperils patients’ access to in vitro fertilization, NBC’s reporters sought comments from regular people. They found a lady at last weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference; on screen, she was identified only as Dawn Bancroft, “Doylestown, Pennsylvania resident.” Perhaps viewers would’ve been better served if NBC had mentioned that this mere “Doylestown, Pennsylvania resident” was the same Dawn Bancroft who was sentenced to 60 days in prison for her role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, having recorded herself saying that she and the other rioters were looking for Nancy Pelosi “to shoot her in the frickin’ brain.”
Is that dearth of context worse than what Kristen Welker said last weekend on Meet the Press? You decide. She asked her guest, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, “Do you think it’s responsible for Democrats to put (Biden) at the top of the ticket?” Don’t hold your breath waiting for her to ask a Republican guest whether it’s “responsible” to head their ticket with a criminal defendant/rapist/financial fraudster who has invited Russia to invade NATO allies and owes more than $454,000,000 in court damages, with interest payments accruing at a rate of $112,000 a day.
I’d talk further about how the “liberal media” label is a canard, but I seem to have lost my notecards.