We have been discussing the open bias shown by the media in the last four years. It is not clear if we can regain the ground lost for journalism as even journalism professors call for the rejection of objectivity in favor of advocacy. This has included shielding Joe Biden from any challenging questions during the recent election. That includes the news blackout on reporting on the Hunter Biden scandal, the subject of my column today in the Hill. CNN’s April Ryan personifies this trend. Even as the media is facing widespread criticism for burying the Hunter Biden story (and is now doing the same with the Swalwell scandal), Ryan lashed out at confidential sources responsible for leaking a recording of Joe Biden making embarrassing comments about the “defund the police” movement. Ryan is demanding to know who is responsible for allowing the embarrassing comments to be made public despite her past enthusiastic discussion of such leaks against President Donald Trump.
President-elect Biden lashed out at the “defund the police” movement this week in a meeting with civil rights leaders, stating “That’s how they beat the living hell out of us across the country, saying that we’re talking about defunding the police. We’re not.” The recording was obtained by The Intercept.
What I felt was most notable was that Biden said that he would not share his plans for reforming the police until after the Georgia runoff to avoid any backlash from voters. While NBC paraphrased the quote as Biden warning “about getting ‘too far ahead of ourselves’ with critical Senate runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5,” it was more direct and disturbing than that.
Biden stated: “Just think to yourself and give me advice whether we should do that before Jan. 5th, because that’s how they beat the living hell out of us across the country, saying that we’re talking about defunding the police.”
It was precisely what Biden did with regard to packing the Supreme Court. He expressly refused to tell voters whether he would support such a plan because it might cost him votes. The key issue in the Georgia runoff is whether, once in control of the Senate, the Democrats would move forward on what are viewed as radical proposals, including sweeping police reforms. Biden’s answer again is not to tell the voters what they have planned.
As I mentioned yesterday, I am not sure when it became acceptable for politicians to expressly refuse to state their intentions and policies until after they are elected. Biden has now twice said that he does not want voters to know in case it might cost votes.
There are a host of issues raised by Biden’s remarks, but Ryan lashed out at the use of such tapes, which are standard in journalism;
“I asked an incoming White House source was the meeting contentious with civil rights leader and @JoeBiden and the answer was ‘no’. A rights leader at the meeting says @JoeBiden was passionate,” Ryan tweeted. “The question is who taped this meeting and why? What is the agenda?”
Ryan then dug herself deeper in responding to what appears a sarcastic response from Vice journalist Edward Ongweso Jr. Orgweso remarked that
“It is irresponsible and sets a dangerous precedent for journalists covering the incoming administration to be able to use secretly recorded conversations in their stories. To parse out Biden’s thoughts and anticipate his policy commitments, you must go through proper channels.
The White House Press Secretary, the spokespeople for the President and Vice President, senior officials (without attribution), and the President’s public statements are all designated and responsible sources for information about the President’s thoughts and intentions.”
Revealing a contradiction between Biden’s private thoughts and public statements is dangerous because it erodes public trust in the President, the Office, and the media itself,
He was trying to state why Ryan’s view of journalism was absurd but, in a telling moment, Ryan agreed with that interpretation of journalism that would make a Stalinist propagandist blush. She responded “You hit the nail in the head! This is not good at all.”
Ongweso Jr. simply responded “Folks… I can’t.”
The fact is that Ryan was just stating what has become the approach of many in the media. As we recently discussed, we are moving dangerously close to a de facto state media with the cooperation of Big Tech companies. Ryan believes that it is outrageous to rely on unapproved material if it is critical of Joe Biden (despite her use of such material for the last four years against Trump).
This week, CNN anchor Kate Bolduan was criticized for wearing a sweater stating “Facts First” as CNN was being criticized for its suppression of the Hunter Biden story and its lack of coverage of the Swalwell scandal. Now one of its most prominent CNN analysts is declaring that journalists should not rely on unapproved material on Biden and that the confidential source for another media organization should be uncovered. CNN has not expressed any disagreement with Ryan’s view of the new journalism.
It is precisely the realization of the call for journalists to dispense with objectivity in favor of open advocacy. What is clear is that, once reporters like Ryan dispense with objectivity, they also substitute it with open hypocrisy.
I have asked in the recent past and I will ask again, Turley are you a paid consultant of the Trump administration? A full disclosure statement to your readers should be given.
You make a comment about Turley and you ignore the content of the article. This is your common practice. You see no danger in a press that is controlled by the government. You are either part of the Biden camp or you are amazingly naive. You’ve put wings on a fish and are in the process of constructing wings for a pig.
You spent the past 4 years drooling over every leak that was harmful to Trump.
Why do you think pointing out yout and democrats and the media’s hypocracy is out of bounds ?
I do expect Turley – as well as every other person in the country capable of critical thinking to shift right – and that is actually happening.
Is there anyone who doubts that Biden could not have won a normal election ? That it would not have even been close ?
That but for democratic executive placing ballots in peoples hands telling them how to vote and then fixing every mistake they made that millions of votes for Biden would not have happened ?
There are many reasons we hold elections in person. Elections are NOT supposed to be easy. They are NOT supposed to reflect the the views of those who are not sufficiently motivated to go to the polls and vote.
It you are too lazy or scared to vote in person – DONT.
Democrats have successfully turned the US into the regimes that we used to laugh at.
I would further note – the Biden tape is noteworthy for many reasons.
One of which is he actually comes accross as very competent.
He also comes accross for ONCE as HONEST.
Many americans particularly those who did NOT vote for Biden find this recording reassuring – Biden is NOT going to keep his promises, and he seems to think that his sole job as president is to TALK, not act.
The only people who should find this leak offensive – are those on the far left.
He likely would have made the disclosure if it applied. Don’t think he’s like John Meacham.
The President-elect must be allowed to have private conversations and April Ryan should be allowed to have “my bad” moments even as Professor Turley effectively turns this one into a teachable moment about the risk of media bias covering Biden and Trump moving forward through Georgia to January 5 and beyond.
Good coverage of Biden’s thought process shows that he must balance pressure on the right (e.g., against “defund the police”) and pressure on the left (e.g., against his Vilsack nomination) in his Cabinet appointments and in his Senate calculations related to the campaigns of Warnock and Ossoff:
https://theintercept.com/2020/12/10/biden-audio-meeting-civil-rights-leaders/
For better or worse, now that a conservative, largely Trump-appointed Supreme Court has done the work of the Legislative Branch for it, or concisely avoided so doing, depending on our view of its decision, and the Electoral College vote feels like an upcoming rubber stamp, some of us are wanting Trump to show more concession in order to heal the nation. We would prefer not to see him take out his understandable disappointment with the Court’s decision by blaming AG Barr for his election loss. Firing AG Barr would be even worse.
Others on the right are perhaps feeling that scapegoating AG Barr is an appropriate way to appease the Trump base’s need for a semblance of post-election justice before President Trump consolidates his legacy by converting his remaining lame duck weeks into passage of a generous COVID-19 Relief Act.
On the left, there may be a strong desire to seat Yates or perhaps Cuomo as the new AG, in order to go “hard” after Trump and his supporters in 2021. Toward a healing center, Doug Jones and Merrick Garland are Biden’s two strongest candidates in the eyes of many.
I am not interested in Handicapping Biden’s future choices.
I have no clue who he will choose for what, and will react to that and what Biden chooses to do when it happens.
Absolutely Presidents and everyone else has a right to privacy.
But you are an idiot if you think in this era that people – especially political leaders will get any privacy.
This is especially true – because we do not trust them and want to know what they say in private because that is more likely to be the truth than what they say in public.
I hope – Contra April Ryan the press will return to doing their job and report the truth – every page of the news is not an op-ed and reporters are supposed to follow the facts, not their politics.
But even that does not matter much – most of us do not trust government, we do not trust the media.
All the efforts of the left to censor everyone they do not like are doing little more than making more and more people angry.
Failure to follow the law in this past election – has made people even angrier.
I would not be surprised if Biden’s remarks were deliberately leaked By Biden supporters to reassure the country.
Regardless Biden has massive problems – he is sitting on TWO powder kegs.
He has a very angry left that thinks that by hook or crook they won him a great victory and they must be paid.
And a very angry right that knows the election was lawless and that likely changes the outcome.
I do not think Biden is even close to up to the task of dealing with that. But this leak suggests that he MIGHT have a clue.
You imply this was the exception, but the conduct, especially the deception by Biden in hiding his intentions, has become the rule. There is a pattern, including with Ryan, of partisan, corrupt behavior, with Big Tech leading the way.
Biden at this point has appointed a bunch of people to his cabinet and in senior administration positions. If there were a lot of scandals there, Turley and others in the right wing press would be talking about them nonstop.
Instead he is talking about (checks notes) Hunter Biden; the President-elect’s son, who is not being proposed as a member of the administration. I don’t think many Dads are responsible for the business affairs of their adult children (the Trump family business, and Trump family members in the white house aside). That must be because the people Biden is actually proposing to join his team are rather scandal-free.
“the Big Guy” … sorry Joe is an intimate partner of his family’s influence peddling/ policy schemes. It certainlt should have weighed into the election discussion.
Hunter had no qualifications for his ventures. It was only through his fathers influence that he made millions. At home we know who Hunter is. Foreign nations don’t care. What’s important is that he is the son of the Vice President of the U.S. Let’s throw in a two and a half karat diamond ring. Wonder if Hunter declared the value of the ring in his taxes. Feel that hurt in the pit of your stomach. There’s more to come.
WTH!!! Are you saying American industries do not have a track record of incredible wealth and success being run by crack whores like Hunter Biden?
If you’re a person of color you can do or say whatever you want in Merica today. And if you are a woman of color, watch out…..
You mean, they have the same rights as you and me? Horrors.
we are moving dangerously close to a de facto state media with the cooperation of Big Tech companies.
The Project Veritas videos on Zucker/CNN are just one example that we’re already there. What we are dangerously close to is the totalitarian state that needs its own propaganda machine.
We will rue the day statements such as We have to pass the bill so that you can see what is in it ever were allowed to be normalized. Now we are being told one of the most controversial of all the possible Biden policy positions won’t be revealed until after the Georgia runoff?
Has there ever been a time throughout history when this relationship between the media and the state has made the rights/freedoms of the people more secure? Ever?
Yes. Except the West practices “soft totalitarianism” by outsourcing the censorship to private entities… However, alternative media are emerging and perhaps that will somewhat balance off the propaganda. It is possible however that a Dum Party administration will formalize censorship by private entities as has occurred in the EU.
I did not hear a lot about the investigation into Ivanka Trump and the 2016 inauguration until she was deposed after the 2020 election. Is that because there was a concerted effort by the MSM to suppress the information?
I mean, Ivanka holds a position in our government. Hunter has no plans to do so. I am not sure why we should be hearing more about an investigation into Hunter than we are hearing of this one of Ivanka.
How much MSM coverage was there when the Trump Foundation was found to be a total scam, and the Trump children were all barred from every running a NY charity again? I mean, that was basically a one day story and the MSM moved on. It seems, scandal for scandal, the MSM has given the Trumps a total pass, while mentioned Hunter more than is due. They seem to be thinking there are so many Trump family scandals the next one is not that significant news. But that results in effectively pro-Trump coverage by the MSM. I mean, if every scandal of Trump were given proportionate coverage (in terms of siginificance) to Hillary’s email management practices there would be no room for anything else in our nation’s newspapers.
+10
Elvis Bug
Actually, the inauguration matter was reported in 2018 and 2019, so your memory is faulty. And the Trump Foundation matter was widely disseminated. You seem to know about it, unlike many Americans did not know about the laptop matter or even Operation Warp Speed.
There was an old PC game, spun off from Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise, that included a quote that’s stuck with me over the years:
The mainstream media now believe it is their prerogative to choose leaders and set the agenda for all of society. When you appoint yourself the master of a free man, you declare yourself his enemy.
What you can not criticize (Dems, Biden, Israel, etc.) is your god.
I am old enough to remember when a party did not even pass a party platform at their convention, they were so scared to telling us what a President might do in his second term if he were re-elected. Because really their party platform is whatever their cult leader says in the moment.
2020 the year we lost the Republic. Someone please tell Benjamin Franklin.
(music to tune of Here’s To U Mrs. Robinson)
Here’s to you Hunter Biden…
Jumping Joe has up and gone away.
Way hey hey!
Etc
Won’t state their intentions until afterward? How is this new, oh ‘classical’ libs? This has been de rigeur for dems for decades. Pass the bill, then you can see what’s in it. I am completely serious and express no ill intent: how have liberals been THIS asleep at the wheel? That party has not been ‘your’ party for some time. It’s likely too late to address it now through normal channels.
Please note that “Journalist” April Ryan cannot even identify sarcasm! Biden only had staffers call on pre approved ” Journalists” with pre approved questions at ” News conferences”. Said if he commented on “Court packing” It would be front page news. What am I missing? He was running for President!!! The electorate doesn’t have the right to know where he stands on the issues? Many disagree with Trump on a wide range of issues and in many cases I can see why. But at least he has the stones to state his position!! So now Biden holds his finger up to the political wind to see if he should state a position on ” Police reform”? LEADERSHIP???
Jonathan wrote, “we are moving dangerously close to a de facto state media with the cooperation of Big Tech companies”
HOGWASH!!!!
We are virtually there already there with the hive mind of the political left calling the shots and we’ve been for nearly 12 years.
And a couple of generations so fragile, naive, inexperienced, and naive that they swallow it whole. It wouldn’t work if people didn’t believe it or knew better. We correctly like to blame public figures, but their efforts would be meaningless without an audience and that sin’t people over 40.
I brought myself to read an article from NYT yesterday, a paper I used to read regularly. It was an important subject, but the piece could have been written by a high school student such was the breathtaking depth of its naiveté. These writers are most definitely the same aforementioned breed of snowflakes that previously wrote the blogs I dropped for the same reasons.
This problem is generational, like it or not, and this time, yes, we more experienced folks do indeed know better than they. No power on this earth can penetrate their entitlement and narcissism (because they are clinical IMO) and cause them to listen though, particularly when they are succeeding in recreating their ‘safe spaces’ across society writ large. I suspect many here with the strongest opinions might even hesitate to try to correct their kids to spare them ‘suffering’.
James, your description of the NYT now applies to the WSJ (the news section, not the editorial section). The business/financial articles are very poorly written. “News” articles focus on slivers of identity, such as how black women are specifically affected by such-and-such. Photos accompanying articles that seem to attempt to be unbiased show a Republican as an old white man and a Democrat as a young black woman. Just before the election, the WSJ news section dismissed the authenticity of the Hunter Biden laptop; so far, no digging out from this position which was widely used by other outlets as rationale for not following or looking into the story themselves. Needless to say, as a long-time subscriber, it hurts to see this happen to such a once respected publication, but because we won’t support this unlearned and ubiquitous left turn, we’re in the process of cancelling our subscription.
Yep, big tech like Facebook definitely skews left. Just look at the 10 top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages every day, ranked by total interactions:
Dec 11
The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours are from:
1. TMZ
2. Ben Shapiro
3. Ben Shapiro
4. Donald J. Trump
5. Ben Shapiro
6. Jay Sekulow
7. Newsmax
8. CNN
9. Newsmax
10. Franklin Graham
At least 4 (more like 5) of the 10 links listed above are Zionist by nature:
TMZ: if one looked at the racial or religious persuasion of the people who produce modern TV and movies, one might well conclude the largest single ratio belong to one group who happen to be largely if not exclusively Zionists.
Jay Sekulow does a so-called “Christian” radio show, with commercials and commentary often focusing on the Zionist nature of modern Israel, “chosen by God.”
Newsmax (2 hits): the very foundation of Newsmax, the glasses through which it views the universe, is Zionism; any syllable you hear contrary to Zionism is negative always and forever, without exception. To Newsmax, anti-Zionism is anti-humanity.
Franklin Graham is an “SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) Evangelist:” To be a member in good standing of any SBC Church requires without exception a Zionist world view, period, full stop. If you don’t believe, me, ask any SBC pastor: “Can I join your church if I deny God gave modern Israel to today’s Jews?” And the answer is no. God said to Abraham, years before Abraham had children: “I shall bless those who bless thee, and I shall curse those who curse thee.” “Thee” translates to you, except, so says the SBC, in this verse. In this verse God used secret Dick Tracy code language, wherein “thee” refers to some dirt in the Middle East 2k years later called Israel, named after Abraham’s still unborn son Jacob (God changed his name to “Israel”). And God kept the secret from Abe who never learned the word’s meaning! (So says the SBC.) In the late 19th C. Scofield unlocked God’s secret code words to Abe, and sent books commanding stupid Western believers to swallow it hook, line and sinker, which they dutifully did and still do. Some SBC Churches print that vs. atop every Sunday Bulletin to remind those who enter to leave if they do NOT endorse Zionism.
You can promote anything in the world, but if you deny God gave some ME dirt to a certain group of people, whoa is you. You can and must and should deny the existence of the Abrahamic God, but do not you dare deny he gave that dirt to “His Special people!”
I don’t frankly care if God did or did not do what some say He did. I just don’t want the US denying George Washington’s advice to “avoid permanent foreign entanglements” because of a certain self-serving religious philosophy, any more than I was Sharia Law or the Pope to be President.
And the republican talking point machine has officially switched gears into ‘dem in the white house’ mode. Bahahahahahahahaha! Love it.
Elvis Bug
As we witness the media has now officially switched gears into ‘dem in the white house’ mode.
America needs to be far more concerned than it is about how it’s media is behaving
Canuck Sailor wrote, “America needs to be far more concerned than it is about how it’s media is behaving”
I completely agree!
Propaganda Is Destroying Trust In The Fourth Estate and Wreaking Havoc On Society
I am not sure when it became acceptable for politicians to expressly refuse to state their intentions and policies until after they are elected.
Like Trump refusing to release his healthcare plan for 4 years?
That’s a fair point. All politicians pull this kind of crap and it’s annoying no matter who does it.
One of if not Trump’s biggest, fattest lies is the one you describe. Remember, “MY MEDICAL PLAN WILL BE BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER!!! I GUARANTEE IT!!!” Trump lost primarily because he’s full of crap and always will be. He would not know a health care plan if it dropped on his head.
GOP creeps like Tucker Carlson who state that Trump kept all or most of his promises just lie through their teeth.
Trump said he was against needless “middle east military excursions” then he hires what may be the biggest, fattest ME war monger on the face of the earth living or dead (well #2 behind John the scumbag McStain, may he rot in hell for eternity) John Bolton, one of the prime Iraq war designers and man who guaranteed his sycophants he would start a war against Iran.
Trump is as stupid as he is careless. He could have acted like a human being but instead acted like a mental case.
Ms. Ryan certainly has the right to be a propagandist. More, she has the right to be morally dishonest.
But we need to respond appropriately to her dishonesty/manipulation.
And that is to shun her statements.
Those who like being lied to (and there are many who do – if the lying supporters their biases), should watch her.
But people who value integrity should move to more honest reporters.
Holmes concise comment is a clear indication he has nothing to say and he truly can’t refute what turley wrote….obviously someone who is a complete nincompoop, or who likes being lied to.
As predicted by myself and others, “Defund the Police” on its own would cost Biden the election.
The seditionists knew that, and that is why they ramped up the election fraud to a level that would make a 3rd world African Dictator envious.
The latter will be their downfall.
Turley, I remember when this was an interesting legal issues discussion thread.
Justice Holmes wrote, “Turley, I remember when this was an interesting legal issues discussion thread.”
Awwww, isn’t this sweet. The oxymoron psydonymed internet troll doesn’t “like” what Turley writes about on Turley’s own blog. STFU moron, it’s not your blog.
That he uses the name of a Justice who defended forced sterilization is no accident.
“Carrie Buck is a feeble-minded white woman who was committed to the State Colony above mentioned in due form. She is the daughter of a feeble-minded mother in the same institution, and the mother of an illegitimate feeble-minded child. She was eighteen years old at the time of the trial of her case in the Circuit Court in the latter part of 1924. An Act of Virginia approved March 20, 1924 (Laws 1924, c. 394) recites that the health of the patient and the welfare of society may be promoted in certain cases by the sterilization of mental defectives, under careful safeguard, etc.; that the sterilization may be effected in males by vasectomy and in females by salpingectomy
The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U. S. 11, 25 S. Ct. 358, 49 L. Ed. 643, 3 Ann. Cas. 765. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.“
Justice Holmes in “Buck vs Bell“
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/274/200
If you think it’s appropriate for you to tell others to STFU, you should follow your own admonition.
Leave you hypocritical jerk! Why be here if it sucks? Start you own blog and pay your friends to visit it.