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.
“Journalists need to be overt and candid advocates for social justice, and it’s hard to do that under the constraints of objectivity.” Stanford Journalism Professor Ted Glasser
Because you have to tell a lot of lies to advocate for ‘social justice’
And so much easier to simply blame “right-wing media” for failing to point out their lies, which were of course derided as ‘conspiracy theories’ and ‘right-wing’ propaganda. Most likely don’t even know what ‘right-wing’ even means.
Agreed. I exited journalism almost 3 decades ago due to pressure to be less objective in favor of more social leaning positions. I could not compromise my thoughts or views for a candidacy of mediocrity.
“We are losing large amounts of money…People are not reading your stuff.” That’s because people don’t like being lied to. They’re trying to get him fired for saying that, so they’ll continue to lose readers. The free market will take care of it. They will become irrelevant.
That’s precisely why CNN+ failed. People quickly realized that there was little value in paying for lies when they could get the same lies for free on regular CNN.
It’s astounding to see the growth of this…this we are being given. Where does one turn when talking with the youth of America? Realizing we’re all part of the same hypocrisy, one must challenge the restraints of this narrative.
They already are irrelevant…..
OK..so.. what’s the bottom-lne, here…what’s the elephant in the room here… let’s say it loud & clear: giving up ‘objectivity’ or giving in to ‘framing’ simply means, by everything we have seen and heard IT”S OK & INDEED REQUIRED TO OUTRIGHT LIE = THE NEW JOURNALISM… so… Next question: WHY DO WE NEED JOURNALISTS AT ALL?
We Don’t need any more propagandists , liars and shills , ( big media TV works for Big Pharma and the MIC not the people of USA) we need MORE , Matt Taibi, Greg Greenwood , Julian Asante etc …..few and far between are any legitimate Journalists.
The democrats attacked the first amendment like crazy, when it comes to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly but it is ironic that they never attack the freedom of the press. They also attacked the second amendment the right to bear arms. I think we need to pass comprehensive common sense legislation regulating the press. When the press is lying, people are dying.
“I’m a Biased Journalist and I’m Okay With That.”
If that’a not one of the best encapsulations of progressive ideology and journalistic “integrity” out there, I am hard-pressed to imagine what could top it.
It doesn’t surprise me that this so-called “journalist, who thinks it is okay to lie and denounce objectivity, didn’t attach their name to this statement. A real loser and a liar.
Hopefully, news outlets will turn this around and return to objectivity and telling the truth. Shows like “The View” and “The Joy Reid” show shoyld be canceled and flushed down the toilet. They are full of hate and brainwash the American people to think it is okay to spread hate and lies by attacking the creditability of political candidates. So, they control the narrative and sway voters. Hopefully, the voters will be more aware of who to believe and stop voting for commies, like Bernie Sanders, Jermal Bowman, the Squad, and Jew haters. There are many serious issues in this country that need to be addressed. We need the truth, not lies and opinions, to decide who would do a better job running this country, and it starts with objective journalism.
“commies… like jew haters.” nice try. the commies are jews. duh. the haters are not. duh.
Joe Scarborough…an effeminate little Nancy boy left winger telling people ‘fuk u’ if you can’t handle the truth’ as he doles out his lying narrative about the demented fossil Biden being a mental giant. You’re a lying little leftist tool….used by your leftist handlers to spread whatever lie they tell you to spread. You are, and always will be, a lying little flea. So fuk u Joey.
“The media is sorry . . . sort of.” (JT)
They’re not sorry, not even sort of.
The only thing they regret, sort of, is this: “The problem comes with these little embarrassing moments when the public suddenly sees that prior coverage was false.”
Which amounts to: Uh, oh. We’ve been exposed as propagandists, again.
Im curious why the author does not expose how this sausage is made with organizations like The Trusted News Initiative coordinating the narrative distribution.
Who Said ‘What’..??
Puppet Watch Remembers
******
A wall of profanities?
Spools of ancient text?
Puppet Watch documents random acts of malice.
A California-based non-profit
PUPPET WATCH
Pre-Dawn Edition, Friday, July 5
Trolls sieze on ‘scandal’ at Puppet Watch, as evidenced by these two posts from early Thursday evening for the column, “E Pluribus Unum–
*****
July 4, 2024, 6:44 pm
Sherlock Holmes says:
Searching the California Secretary of State database, there are no non profit organizations by the name of Puppet Watch.
July 4, 2024, 6:45 pm
green anonymous says:
Puppet Watch is the troll posting the Latin garbage. He is also Elvis Bug.
……………………………..
Sherlock has no case. Puppet Watch is not soliciting, nor accepting, any donations. There are no sponsorships. No money trail.
Puppet Watch is non-profit in the truest sense.
But the language of green anonymous is more significant here. Note that term ‘Elvis Bug’.
Elvis Bug is frequently used by the same green anonymous in vulgar posts regarding ‘k_nts’, ‘c*cks’ and ‘eating peanuts from turds’.
Floyd Estovir, as green anonymous, was posting reams of profanity as recently as last week. That was his first attempt to paralyze the blog. He wanted to create a crisis with reams of profanity.
On Thursday, June 27th, for the column, “Want To Defeat Joe Biden?”, Estovir posted the entire Book of Revelations at 7:40 pm. Then at 9:21 pm, Floyd posted the ancient Welsh poem, “The Battle Of The Trees”.
Those two posts, The Book Of Revelations and Battle Of The Trees, are excellent indicators regarding the culprit posting all these Latin texts. Readers are advised to go back and examine that activity. They will see the names Estovir and Floyd.
Currently Floyd Estovir keeps posting comments regarding the status of blog moderator Darren Smith. Floyd claims Mr Smith has obviously quit the blog.
The last we heard of Mr Smith was less than two weeks ago. That’s when Floyd Estovir commented, “Darren Smith sucks c*cks”.
Note to Floyd Estovir:
Darren didn’t quit the blog. He just quit ‘you’ for posting that.
They need to go under.
Let’s go Brandon!
“journalists as activists because journalism at its best — and indeed history at its best — is all about morality.”– In that case, as someone has said, someone will have to play God.
I wonder who these deviants have in mind?
By propping Joe Biden up in office, as his cognitive function nosedives, his legacy will be remembered as the first president to become actively senile in office, or to run for reelection while in very serious cognitive decline.
We’re long past the beginning stages, where someone is a bit forgetful.
I lost my relative to Alzheimers. That disease does not wipe out the wonderful life she led before. Keeping Biden in office will make his demential all he’s remembered for.
There is a trend in today’s politics where politicians cling to power until they’re incapable of fulfilling their duty, and pass away in office. Diane Feinstein, (D, CA), was unrecognizable in the months leading up to her death, confined to a wheelchair, not understanding proceedings, and needing aids to tell her what to say. It was a travesty for her to stay that long.
Or, one could quip, a well-functioning mind is simply of no use to a Democrat. 🙂
Karen S, good points.
Reagan was showing many signs of dementia while in office.
They kept as much of it covered up as possible.
Lesley Stahl wrote about it (“We all looked the other way.”)
as well as Ron Jr. in a memoir about his father.
One of his aides said: He tuned out—a lot…People didn’t talk about it. People treated him with very special care. You had to explain things in elemental terms, but because he was so likable, everyone had so mush personal regard for him—everyone protected him…He was intellectually vacant, but I never felt the country was in any danger.
read Edmund Morris’ biography of Reagan. No fan of Reagan at all but a highly respected biographer, chosen because of his many prized biography of Theodore Roosevelt. Read all of Reagan’s diaries and frequently interviewed him through both terms. Saw absolutely no signs of cognitive impairment.
There is a bit of mixed opinions on Ronald Reagan’s acuity while in office. My own grandmother died of Alzheimers. Looking back, there were little forgetful things she did for about ten years before her diagnosis. She kept losing her glasses or misplacing things. Everyone loses their keys sometimes or forgets an actor’s name, so this alone is not a cause for alarm. Then, years before her diagnosis, she began misspelling my name. Years after that, she didn’t recognize her own glasses, thinking a pair she’d had years ago were her current pair. It still took years, and further decline, for the Alzheimers diagnosis, which at that time, was not as accurate as it is today.
Given that Ronald Reagan was officially diagnosed 5 years after he left office, I would absolutely believe he had small lapses while in office. The little things where people around him would wonder if it was age, or a sign of something else.
Ronald Reagan never devolved to the cognitive loss that Joe Biden has displayed while in office. Reagan didn’t need a printed note card telling him when to sit down, how to leave, and whom he may call on for prepared questions, with answers printed on the card next to the reporters’ photos. That level of decline happened after Reagan left office. Reagan’s lapses towards the end of his final term were more like Joe Biden showed in his 2020 election campaign.
Having Alzheimers or other forms of dementia does not detract from the patient’s accomplishments prior, or even while in the very beginning stages. It does mean that from that point forward, the patient needs extra care and consideration.
A majority of people who reach age 75 will experience some form of dementia. As we live longer, the nation should require cognitive tests for people in certain positions, including Congress, any court including SCOTUS, and the Presidency, though that last may require a Constitutional amendment.
My only concern is to prevent political activist doctors from fabricating claims of mental incapacity just to prevent a hated candidate from running for office.
Go watch Reagons last State Of Union speech. He nailed it! He never stared off in space like Biden! In 1987-88. He signed nuclear arms agreement. And went to Red Square and put his arm around Gorbechav. And said our countries are friends. The Russian leader said Reagan was very sharp and smart After he fell off horse and hit his head did he have problems. The Mayo Clinic did brain surgery on him in 1989. Diagnosed with Alzheimers 1994. Died 2004.
The argument for a maximum age limit for President is much stronger than one for a minimum.
Journalists have now openly admitted that their goal is to influence elections, rather than report the news.
Conservative news sources were correct, back in the 2020 presidential election cycle. Joe Biden was showing signs of cognitive decline. The media and Democrat Party misled voters to get Biden elected, whereupon he promptly declined gradually, until the precipitous decline so apparent in the debate. Most of the media called for Trump to take a cognitive test, which he did, and shared the results with the public. They were disinterested in Joe Biden’s refusal to do the same. The media declared Trump physically unfit for office, because he once walked slowly up a ramp. The same journalists were totally disinterred in Joe Biden becoming increasingly frail, constantly tripping, until he’s reached the point where FLOTUS leads him by the hand offstage so that he doesn’t get lost or fall. It’s the same scene at nursing homes.
My relative died of Alzheimers. Symptoms began with forgetting names, gradually declining, bit by bit, until there was the sudden drop off the cognitive cliff.
The decline is really apparent when you compare Joe Biden in recent interviews compared with 2020. The initial signs of decline in 2020 were also quite apparent when you compared that footage with Joe Biden in 2010.
This is massive election interference. If journalists hadn’t run cover for Joe Biden, asking him more probing questions than the flavor ice cream he preferred, then voters would have the opportunity for a more informed decision.
At 6:30 in front of the Whitehouse Biden said that when he was a Senator their was lots of traffic congestion but guess what there’s no congestion anymore. I guess he doesn’t have to sit in traffic during rush hour. Double Duh.
@DavidSacks
“Democrats can’t seem to run a presidential election without a major scam:
2016: Hillary campaign funds phony Steele Dossier, fraudulently mislabeling it as a legal expense. This becomes the basis for an FBI investigation, fraud on the FISA court, spying on the Trump campaign, a special counsel investigation, and multi-year “Russian collusion” hoax.
2020: Biden campaign organizes “51 intelligence authorities” to lie that Hunter’s laptop is “Russian disinformation” to discredit legitimate evidence of Biden Family corruption. Big Tech censors the story after being primed by FBI (which knows laptop is real) to be vigilant for a Russian “hack-and-leak” operation involving Hunter Biden.
2024: Biden’s DOJ along with partisan local DAs invent novel legal theories to pursue unprecedented lawfare against Trump in order to brand him as a “convicted felon” on the basis of (at most) expired bookkeeping misdemeanors. Meanwhile Biden’s declining cognitive condition is covered up and called a partisan lie.
Are Democrats even capable of running a presidential campaign without massive hoaxes, disinformation campaigns and election interference involving corruption of government officials and complicity of the mainstream media? This should be offensive to every voter.
It’s time to clean out the stables.” Jul 4, 2024
“Nothing could be more July 4th than watching the Democrat Party finally collapse under the weight of its own scams, hoaxes, and corruption. 🇺🇸”. @DavidSacks
*Also watching the collapse of the mainstream media that got exposed (thanks to Democrats) as nothing more than propagandists lying on behalf of Democrats.
The media is the Enemy of the People. They are Fake News. Trump was right again.
I don’t believe the Democrat Party will collapse. They have returned to the declaration that Trump is Hitler, which requires massive cognitive dissonance that their voters seem quite willing to provide. While Democrats in Congress oppose Israel’s existence, make excuses for antisemites attacking Jews in America, Democrats will just regurgitate the usual lies that Trump is some sort of ultra secret closeted antisemite. Being good friends with Netanyahu, a staunch ally of Israel, moving the embassy to Jerusalem, and having Jewish grandkids is just his really, really, really deep cover. Democrat voters believe everything the party says about Trump, and feel perfectly justified supporting or employing Machiavellian abuses of power to keep him out of office, or destabilize his presidency.
It doesn’t matter that Joe Biden is corrupt, senile, or that he repeatedly has his policies knocked down as unconstitutional. Orange Man Bad is the slogan that deflects all valid criticism.
Conservatives and Libertarians had better figure out an effective response, that does not just devolve into anger, because this will be the Democrat playbook for all future, strong opponents. If Ron DeSantis had clinched the nomination, someone would have seen him standing by the Solo cups somewhere, sometime.
There has to be a away to clean house on journalism, I used to read news papers all the time, but they became a gossip sheet, not worth it.
Do they go out and investgate their a story, then add more to it., they lies come in.
The worst of the worst is those who have there own podcast at there homes, they try to speak for everyone. They lie one after the other, there should be some truth where we as readers will not have to burn the news paper up, its full of gossip. No truth, where can we find the truth.. This is sad. Democrates will never tell the truth, there after power.
If they would get rid of Nancy Pelosi and chuck schumer and Barack Hussein Obama, and many more I think we could have better listner and readers if some would just retire in the political field and the news media get out of election.
A President who can’t handle events or campaigning after eight o’clock at night because he needs more sleep. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ba9sQDv77iM. Look at the time zones around the world where foreign leaders will not be able to speak with Biden because he has to get his nappy in.
James Carville said concerning Biden in the debate. It’s like seeing your grandmother naked. You just can’t get it out of your mind.
Data for Progress is a Democratic poll that has Trump ahead 48 to 45. The leftist lament. Well it must be rain drops falling from my eye eyes. Falling from my eyes. I must be right out of my head. Rain keeps falling from my eyes. It can’t be teardrops cause a clown ain’t supposed to cry.
Yes, it was all because of the right wing. Cmon, man, Biden and Beethoven share a similar quality! They’re both
deaddeaf. Alas it appears the MSM is also deaf and dying a spectacular deathFor Joe Biden, What Seems Like Age Might Instead Be Style
In this respect, the president has something in common with Beethoven, Wagner and Martin Scorsese
March 8, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/08/books/review/joe-biden-age-style.html
The Washington Post situation is particularly sad when one recalls All The President’s Men, where editor Ben Bradlee repeatedly reminded Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, aka WoodStein, to check, double-check, triple-check and corroborate sources for their Watergate reporting.
As for blaming “the right-wing media” for Biden reporting, have they tired of calling something “Russian disinformation” and “Russian propaganda” when they don’t like it? One wonders when Rachel Maddow et al., leading Democrats and those 51 former intelligence officials of Hunter laptop letter fame will suggest – again without evidence – the Kremlin as the source of the Biden videos. After all, they “ha[ve] all the classic earmarks…..”
The gaslighting and lies are so absurd at this point it quite literally boggles the mind. We used to call this level of absurdity and hyperbole satire, but in 2024 it is what passes for ‘news’. Our modern media can go straight to h*ll. nobody is buying this sheet anymore. Good riddance, and I hope the trust funds are enough to keep you from starving when you are out of a job. Largely the rest of us think you are ridiculous, don’t care, and would love to see you get your just desserts. Enjoy it.