The media is sorry . . . sort of. After the shocking appearance of President Joe Biden in the presidential debate, the public has turned its attention to the press which has, again, buried a major scandal for years. According to CNN, the reporters at the White House are really, really sorry but explained that it was the “right-wing media” that prompted them to avoid the story. It is a telling admission that, yet again, reporters chose not to report on a story because they wanted to frame the news for political purposes. It is precisely the pattern that I discuss in my new book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage where the media now rejects objectivity and neutrality as core values in journalism.
For years, there have been questions about President Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline. Those concerns reached their apex when Special Counsel Robert Hur issued his report. While finding that Biden had unlawfully retained and mishandled classified material for decades, he concluded that prosecution would be difficult because a jury would be swayed by the appearance of an elderly man with declining memory.
The media pounced and attacked Hur while media figures attested to the President’s acuity and ability. Then, as videos repeatedly surfaced showing the President confused and fragile, the media declared them “cheap fakes” and attacked Fox News and other outlets for airing them even though Fox noted that the clips were unedited. (For full disclosure, I am a Fox News analyst). Virtually every news outlet aired the attack with politicians, pundits, and celebrities attesting that the President was sharp and engaged.
On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough stated
“start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And F— you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I have known him for years…If it weren’t the truth I wouldn’t say it.”
Then the presidential debate happened and, after years of being protected by staff, tens of millions of people watched the president struggle to stay focused and responsive.
So, as an embarrassed press struggled to explain the most recent belated disclosure, the reason is the “right-wing press” and the need to counter their narratives.
While saying that reporters “are now expressing regret,” CNN explains that “some members of the White House press corps who have regular exposure to President Biden are now admitting they were “turned off” from exposing his mental decline before last week’s debate in part because of the attention it has got from ‘right-wing media.'”
It was just part of shaping the news, which is now the priority in journalism.
A recent series of interviews with over 75 media leaders by Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor, and Andrew Heyward, former CBS News president, reaffirmed this shift. As Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, stated: “Objectivity has got to go.”
But that objectivity seems to depend heavily upon what ideology you are advocating.
We have been discussing the rise of advocacy journalism and the rejection of objectivity in journalism schools. Writers, editors, commentators, and academics have embraced rising calls for censorship and speech controls, including President-elect Joe Biden and his key advisers. This movement includes academics rejecting the very concept of objectivity in journalism in favor of open advocacy.
In an interview with The Stanford Daily, Stanford journalism professor, Ted Glasser, insisted that journalism needed to “free itself from this notion of objectivity to develop a sense of social justice.” He rejected the notion that journalism is based on objectivity and said that he views “journalists as activists because journalism at its best — and indeed history at its best — is all about morality.” Thus, “Journalists need to be overt and candid advocates for social justice, and it’s hard to do that under the constraints of objectivity.”
Lauren Wolfe, the fired freelance editor for the New York Times, has not only gone public to defend her pro-Biden tweet but published a piece titled “I’m a Biased Journalist and I’m Okay With That.”
Former New York Times writer (and now Howard University Journalism Professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones is a leading voice for advocacy journalism.
Indeed, Hannah-Jones has declared “all journalism is activism.”
The problem comes with these little embarrassing moments when the public suddenly sees that prior coverage was false. Whether it is the Russian collusion story (for which reporters received Pulitzer Prizes) or the Hunter Biden laptop or the Lafayette Park photo shoot or the migrant whipping controversy, there is an inescapable pattern of omission and misdirection. This is why media outlets are collapsing as the public seeks other sources for information.
As I previously wrote, the mantra “Let’s Go Brandon!” was embraced by millions as a criticism as much of the media as President Biden. It derives from an Oct. 2 interview with race-car driver Brandon Brown after he won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race. During the interview, NBC reporter Kelli Stavast’s questions were drowned out by loud-and-clear chants of “F*** Joe Biden.” Stavast quickly and inexplicably declared, “You can hear the chants from the crowd, ‘Let’s go, Brandon!’”
So, in expressing guilt for not pursuing the President’s mental and physical decline, the media is left with explaining that they are just doing what they are trained to do in the new J Schools. They were countering conservatives and framing the news.
This is why Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis is under attack for dropping a truth bomb on the staff of the Post when he told them:
“We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around,” Lewis said. “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
Staff is now trying to get him fired.
The KISS principle applies again: If you take objectivity out of the ANY analysis, all you are left with is BS.
Need an example? Recall the COVID management.
It seems everyone – Dems and Repubs , owes Robert Hur an apology .
But them it is the age of rage so someone has to be outraged
Robert Hur was dead on the money in both his assessment and course of action.
I really want to hear that tape.
What apologies do the right owe Hurr ?
Turls is an a hole who has made a living piling on the vast right wing conspiracy since the Clinton years. If he really thought Biden was too damaged by age he wouldn’t have been such a media mainstay in the McCarthy-esque swift boating campaign against Hunter in order to get to Joe.
Also, in Turley world, any reason for him to get his dirty goat impulses off on Hannah-Jones is a good one for him. He secretly wishes he could fly upside down flags at his house.
Are you really raising dumb, or is it an act?
RE: “Turls is an a hole ..” YOU are certainly NOT part of the class of contributors I celebrated elsewhere in these pages.
The veil is down now and everyone sees the emperor with no clothes. The only question is who is ACTUALLY performing the duties of President? It’s not the man that was “elected” – so who is it? Aides say he’s only able to function 6 hours per day, so who is responsible for the “nuclear football” the other 18 hours of each day? And who gave them the authority?
Voters generally elect the slickest “used car salesman” not always the most qualified. That is a sad depiction of us – the voters!
Time to fix this!
Let us remember back when America was a country and not a “region”:
Former President Ronald Reagan always seemed to remember this bravery and courage:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Enjoy Whitney Houston singing America the Beautiful at the end.
MSM is a farce.
MSM is an extension of the DNC.
MSM is a joke.
Support alternative media! Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Sha
The democrats are counting on institutional ignorance to pull them close, the ballot harvesters will do the rest. As we say in California, if you send your ballots out like junk mail, you get a junk state.
So was the debate a “cheap fake”?
The press is the cheap fake. The cabal of “Journalists” whose dream is to change the world are not speaking truth to power. They have an agenda cloaked under the blanket of a free and independent press. When you sell a home, you are legally bound to disclose things about the home that may have a negative impact on the sale. The press will lie with impunity (more so than the politicians they purport to hold accountable).
Let’s take the opportunity today the 4th of July to celebrate our founding fathers for giving us all the opportunity to enjoy the many freedoms God gave. We should all be cautious and vigilant not to think today there are those who wish to take those freedoms from us all. So on this day between picnicking, fireworks and good cheer remind yourself in our government lurk villainous foes of freedom.
WaPo and the NYT have devolved into nothing more than cult newsletters.
Horace Greeley
Certainly, a member[s] of the White House staff who’s interests are in removing Biden from the ballot are leaking to the MSM. The dustup over his medical checkup the other day is suspect.
After Trump won in 2016 there was much mea culpa in the media for focusing too much on the Hillary email story and the that this likely helped Trump. This changed everything. These days, objectivity is a luxury we can’t afford !! Bash Trump and his supporters 24/7, slant the story so his unfitness and dictatorial vision is a given, and cover for Biden at all costs. Hence the great dementia cover up. Mainstream media is now an arm of the Dem party.
It has been my entire life- but I am only 76.
Do some research on the relationship between the Obama Administration and the MSM hierarchy of executives. There lies the problem and exposes what a manipulative tyrant Obama is. He must be held accountable!
Agreed – Just part of Biden’s Act to ‘cover-your-tracks’ as he eases out of office. He was never “in-charge” of anything (
The entire Administration was a Mishears-of-Distraction.
BillHillary & Obama ran the W.H. Show behind the scene. The Alphabet Branches ran their covert programs and the Defense Industrial Base got away with Trillions in U.S. Dollars.
For his part, Biden knew the only way he’d come out of this free-n-clear with some money in his pocket, was to keep the ponzi scheme running to the end of the presidency (retirement), and walk off to Rehoboth Beach Millionaire Acres (with Our Tax Dollars).
Remember the the past, The Dems made you truly-sick with the constant; badgering, disinformation, media attack blitz, ruminating, B.S. throughout the Trump Administration.
From 2016 to 2024 it has been a waste of Our time, because of their spinning. If Trump gets elected, expect the same thing over again. And I don’t feel the People are going to stomach it again. There is going to be Civil Unrest.
The Country doesn’t need that, the People don’t need that. They (The Uni-Party) just don’t know how to quit it (the B.S.).
It’s broken in so many ways. It’s sad for what the U.S. has become.
-TRA
It was never ours without a fight, so perhaps this BS has gone far enough. It has NEVER been about Trump, it’s about the corruption and overreach of a Constitutional Republic governed by THE PEOPLE. Trump has been the poster child of their retribution for calling them out on their BS. America was Not to be governed by a bunch of global elites raiding our chauffeurs and imposing their own stupid agendas upon us. America is for Americans, not the select few that slither about in DC. Time to fix this, no matter the cost.
So, we’ve all known, for quite a while, that the emperor had no clothes. It would appear that the only ones ever denying that were the “tailors” (media) and the indoctrinated tools (political hacks and sycophants).
Remember how flabbergasted the NH college student was when he called her a lying dogface pony soldier? This has been going on since the 2020 primary campaign and before. He would never have survived Super Tuesday that year if Obama hadn’t told all the other candidates to quit.
Wait I’m not sure what you mean. Are the guilty reporters now saying: the conservative media was telling the truth about Biden, and we personally disliked those people so much that that forced us to lie just to say the opposite of them, so it’s their fault we lied?
OldManFromKS,
In short, yes!
We need to correct our collective terminology. The media discussed in the post should properly be called the gaslight media.
A term they would not like but exactly true: propagandists.
I would give up chocolate forever if Joe Biden would walk buck naked downstairs to the first floor of the White House.
(He probably already has)
I am waiting for the Old Fraud to lapse and start using the N Word in public.
Floyd…Indeed. Another real possibility!
The only ‘cheap fakes’ and ‘disinformation’ making the rounds in DC – aka Gaslight City – are the breathless Leftstream Media’s reporting on Biden’s superhuman intellectual acumen.
Cognitive dissonance is the coin of the realm.
Give him some credit, he helped to transition organized crime from the streets to the boardrooms to the white house.
But yeah, he’s nearly a ghost today.
The media have only themselves to blame for the collapse of their credibility, the rise of independent journalism, and their own financial woes.
To the children at CNN, NYT, WaPo and elsewhere resisting the efforts of their owners to restore balance and objectivity to journalism.
Either you accept the changes needed for your employers to survive – though it is likely already too late.
Or very shortly you join the swelling ranks of unemployed journalists.
This is why, after growing up with a daily newspaper in Kansas City, I no longer take the paper but have to glean my news from TV and the internet. The Kansas City Star gave itself over to the Left years ago and has been pure advocacy ever since. It’s a wonder it still exists in any form as a skeleton of what it once was. But they only have themselves to blame.
“Biden’s Infirmity” You Say – HA !!!
I’m call’in you out:
Five Quick Things: Dirty Joe’s Chinese Laundry
Why would this guy refinance his mortgage again and again like that?
By: Scott McKay ~ June 28, 2024
https://spectator.org/five-quick-things-dirty-joes-chinese-laundry/
EXCLUSIVE
Joe and Jill Biden have been using their Delaware house for fast cash – refinancing 20 times with loans totaling $4.2M since buying the $350k home
POTUS and first lady refinanced their two homes 35 times over the years
Current Wilmington house has outstanding $541k loan 28 years after purchase
READ MORE: Bombshell poll reveals where Biden and Trump stand ahead of CNN debate
By: Chris White For Dailymail.com ~ June 24th, 2024
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13547165/Joe-Jill-Biden-Wilmington-Delaware-home-refinance-mortgage.html
NOW does that sound like “Infirmity” to You? Sounds more like: That’s how it’s done.