In the wake of the leaked audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, the media is going through another round of spinning its own failure to pursue the question of Biden’s obvious mental and physical decline. That is no more evident than at CNN, which was one of the most hostile networks to such questions before Biden withdrew from the presidential race after his disastrous debate. The struggle was on full display on Friday.
CNN’s host Jake Tapper has faced withering attacks over his publication of a book investigating Biden’s decline, long after the public learned the truth during the debate. While Tapper has admitted that he could have pushed harder on the question, he has been critical of the White House staff and others who hid the truth from the media despite the fact that many were attacked on CNN for raising the issue (including by Tapper).
On Friday’s CNN’s “The Lead,” CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Pérez raised the same rationale for the performance that the White House used after the debate: Biden was tired due to performing his duties as president. Just as the White House raised how Biden was coming off an international trip before the election, Pérez noted that the interview came after the October 7 attack when Biden “had spent that entire time, obviously, on the phone and working long hours.”
“look, one of the other things that I think is key to understanding this, during this interview, the context, right, is that, you remember, he sat down for these interviews in October of, when, right after the attack by Hamas in Israel. And so, he had spent that entire time, obviously, on the phone and working long hours. And so, the big question, of course, became, a president of his age, and given the stresses of what he was going through, should he have sat down, should that have been the time for him to sit down for several hours of interviews — and they do go over two days of interviews with prosecutors — with everything that they had on the line? Clearly, Joe Biden thought that it was fine to do that. But, clearly, you can see from some of his answers that he does not have a handle on some of this. And so you could say, was it because of fatigue, or is it because of the things that you write about in your book, Jake? And so, that’s the big — I think, the big takeaway or big question that people will take away from listening to this audio.”
On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN NewsNight,” host Abby Phillip blamed not Hamas but Democrats and Hur:
“[I]f Democrats had taken seriously, which, by the way, in a way, Robert Hur kind of undersold this. He kind of threw Joe Biden a lifeline. It was an opportunity, actually, for Democrats to take it seriously, maybe change gears at that point, and maybe [give] a potential nominee more time.”
CNN Political Commentator Maria Cardona piped in that you should not forget to blame the First Lady: “I think, at the end of the day, the accountability falls with Joe Biden, and, frankly, probably, with Jill Biden too, because –.”
Phillip responded, “Yeah, that’s true, but it also falls on the Democratic Party that ostracized people who said anything about Joe Biden’s — attacking the media for even raising the issue of his age, when, clearly, it was an issue. There’s accountability there, too.”
The only lack of accountability has been for the media itself, which is again spinning its own role in dismissing these accounts.
This effort continued right up to the debate itself. CNN’s Oliver Darcy wrote, “Right-wing media figures are desperately pushing conspiracy theories about Biden ahead of the debate.”
As Joe Concha has pointed out, media outlets attacked Hur after the report to dismiss accounts of Biden’s diminishment when he was still the Democratic standard bearer. Media sources like the Atlantic followed the lead of the White House in attacking Hur for “misleading” the public on Biden’s memory.
Now, Hur is being attacked on CNN for “downplaying” the extent of the diminishment.
What is striking about these accounts is that they suggest that the media was kept in the dark and omit the fact that it was ignoring or opposing those in the media who were raising the concerns. This was an active effort to swat down such concerns until it no longer mattered after the public saw the truth. The media then investigated a story that was impossible to deny or ignore.
The public is obviously not buying it. Instead they are increasingly looking to new media and social media for their news.
Blaming Hamas or Hur is not going to work. For most viewers, it is another “Let’s Go Brandon” moment.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Hunter was actually president and why cocaine was found in wh!
Dennis Prager: “Truth is not a left-wing value.”
Jill Biden is committing elder abuse. Instead of going off quietly like other 1st ladies she is trotting her husband out like a puppet. Very sad.
Journalists aren’t really blaming themselves here. Tapper was at the forefront of the coverup. This is more like a cathartic exercise, or a “self-help” video. No one is suggesting any consequences for any of this, no one is calling for changes to editorial boards. No heads will be rolling here. Its just a good healthy, boy we really got this one wrong. No one is really asking the question as to why they go it so wrong. Because obviously they really, really, really, desperately wanted to believe it. Most people, even Obama, knew that Biden, even in his “prime” was an imbecile. The only problem the press has with this now, is that it makes THEM look foolish. Not that the country might have been in danger or that we were being run by a faceless deep-state committee with an autopen. Tapper is trying to play the Bill Mahr role here by pretending to rise above all of this and be the voice of reason for journalism.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a law for reporters like we have for murderers, thieves, and other major criminals that allows them to write books but they cannot personally profit from sales. Jake Tapper and the other frauds in the media should not be allowed to profit from their own lies and coverups.
One might say that their loss of reputation is indeed the price they must pay. Maybe. They made the decision to forfeit their reputation probably many years ago when they joined the fake news network. The irony here is that the exposure of these frauds did not come from the right but from themselves. It’s fun to watch as they stew in their own sauce.
It’s sort of like the story of the guy who pleads Nolo Contendere: Your Honor, I didn’t do it, but if you let me go, I promise I’ll never do it again! Good-bye all you leftwing media hacks; you sold your souls and professional integrity to a decrepit and corrupt old man who couldn’t even remember your name.
Well, errant yellow journalists or just journalists can be murdered in monarchies as Prince Solman did to kashoggi. Perhaps monarchies are a better political system.
CNN is only the most obvious journalistic miscreant here because of Tapper’s book but they were all in on it with suppressing or miscasting the news through a combination of stupidity, activism, elitism, and a total disregard for half the country. They were the later day inheritors of PRAVDA and IZVESTIA in all their glory.
They don’t need to be dismantled, they need to be burned down. The problem is where do you go to find teachers to rebuild a truthful and hostile press. If the press is not hostile to the government then they are not doing their job. That is their main reason for being, Otherwise they are just propaganda. All governments want favorable press but the press is not there to give it to them. No matter which party controls the government the press should be on the other side. Well researched, skeptical, and moderately hostile. You can be patriotic and still be truthful. If you don’t have the truth then how do you correct and improve yourself.
Admitting error, unprompted, is growth and it’s painful but that is what truth requires.
“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”. The mainstream media and Democrats involved in the coverup of Biden’s cognitive failures quite possibly will never be forgiven no matter how much they try to rationalize their failures. They have lost many of us, likely forever.
MSM left and right, up and down is all clanging cymbals…loud noise boxes.
What a pitiful shame…
ISTM that the baseline assumption should be that anyone who gains governmental power should be an object of suspicion – that’s the way to maintain press objectivity. Even the people whose expressed views comport with mine would likely not be in power if they didn’t:
* cheat
* lie
* accept bribes
* sell favors or influence
* or do something else they shouldn’t do.
Start with these assumptions and you have an adversarial press that will dig for the truth. But you also have to get them to accept the truth when they find out, even if the person under investigation is on the other side.
We were not buying it then, and we are not buying their/Dem schticks now…
The game that the media, especially Tapper and CNN, are playing by disavowing Biden and the WH staff is a joke. The smug, arrogant and nasty clip of Tapper going nuclear on Lara Trump is damning and it should be shown every time Tapper or his book is mentioned.
Liars like Tapper are now saying that WH staffers lied to them over the years…well since your sources lied to you we should be told who they are. Why protect a source that lied to you while putting the nation in peril due to not having a president? Do you think they would dig deeper into who was lying for Trump?
Also, during Trump 1 we had books and columns by “Anonymous” and yet there were no “Anonymous” stories that came out against Joe Biden or Jill or Hunter Biden as one of them was running the autopen.
If Tapper and the media are now saying that they were lied to and that Biden was diminished why aren’t they doing the Woodward-Bernstein trying to figure out who was running the WH? Where is the “journalistic curiosity”?
If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.
What is utterly amazing is the World now knows that the Biden Regime (all 4 years plus the Presidential Campaign) was a fraud perpetrated by a vast amount of co-conspirators and CNN/MSNBC and many involved in the conspiracy continue to spout the Fraud!!!!!!! They do not even understand the gig is up……..
As much as I enjoy and respect Scott Jennings I wish he would push back harder against the host Abbie Phillips. The so-called host NEVER sides with Jennings, never admonishes those opposing Jennings and always saves her disgusted face for Scott or anyone who happens to agree with him.
Note to Scott, you have the power, you are the only reason CNN gets any traction these days, use it a but more forcefully, especially against that lightweight Phillips. If you get fired by CNN it will only make your senatorial bid easier.
She’s never going to. It’s a leftist news outlet. He’s there to be the panel whipping boy. He’s the lone conservative voice and makes his points convincingly and makes the rest of the panel look foolish. They tried to set this up like a fox news panel, where they have one token liberal. The problem is that even with five libtards on panel, the lone conservative voice still wins out. I’m surprised CNN hasn’t killed this show, or at least swapped out Jennings, he’s making fools out all of them.
I am struck by Evan Perez’s comment, “look, one of the other things that I think is key to understanding this, during this interview, the context, right, is that, you remember, he sat down for these interviews in October of, when, right after the attack by Hamas in Israel. And so, he had spent that entire time, obviously, on the phone and working long hours”. Even now he assumes (obviously) that Biden was working intensely on the middle East situation. Given all of the careful and deceptive manipulation of Joe Biden’s public persona by his officials and his many willing allies in the media, I think the last thing that the public and honest journalists should be doing regarding questions of Joe Biden’s activities is assuming that Biden actually performed normal Presidential duties. I hope that we eventually find out exactly how the Biden White House functioned with Joe Biden with his limited cognitive capabilities? To what extent was Joe Biden actually engaged in decision making except as a figure head or to give a final nod of approval? Did the US actually briefly have a King in a constitutional monarchy sense – someone who was just a ceremonial head of state?
Seems like most of today’s “journalists” missed their calling to go in political “lobbying”
Tapper “has been critical of the White House staff and others who hid the truth from the media . . .” (JT)
That’s odd.
Non-sycophants did not need the WH or “others” to tell us what was obvious. All we needed was two eyes and a dash of courage.
I give CNN credit for airing Bill Maher on Saturday nights. It’s one bright light in an otherwise smelly swamp of political infowarfare.
Rather than play the blame game, perhaps, these journalists should be investigating the repercussions of a hindered Biden presidency. I can’t imagine what his calls with foreign leaders were like. He also ignored Putin rather than deal with him directly. I have been asking myself for years who was running the country during this time? Trump’s assertions about the Ukraine invasion and Iranian proxy activity not occurring if he’d been reelected are likely valid. Frankly, I’m surprised the Chinese didn’t invade Taiwan during the Biden term. There are so many other angles worth pursuing beyond culpability.
I love the suggestion that “the media was left in the dark.” They were in the rooms when Biden was exhibiting every sign of his accelerating decline. All we poor benighted voters had to go on was their edited videos and stories – and we all saw it.
“Journalism” began its death throes in the sixties when the ranks of reporters linked arms with the Anti-War movement and set about to sway public opinion and not focus on the truth. Even the beloved Cronkite bragged that he would end public support for the war. Manipulation of the news was perfected as subsequent generations took control of the press. Today’s “journalists” are the grandchildren of the sixties. And, to make matters worse, journalism schools morphed from icons of virtue into purveyors of political ideology. Sixty years of decay will not be fixable. It must be replaced.
CNN is a JOKE along with their entire staff of so called reporters etc. They need to rebuild CNN from the ground up, fire the entire staff and bring in new blood, those who are objective. CNN needs to go back to the early years, where they truly reported. They need a Ted Turner type to take it over and rebuild it.
The problem with CNN et al., is not just to suddenly confess, admit reporting errors, and move on. They will not because they cannot. Left in the dustbin years ago was objective journalism, and replaced by advocacy journalism. They come as college journalism majors, where objectivity has been all but abandoned. They come to the stations needing only the advocacy goal on which to apply their skills. Their morality on truth resides not far from marketing majors, aka advocacy journalists for a product. They are trained to make plausibility arguments, not penetrate depths of obfuscation and deceit. AND, as you point out, they’re not even very good at that.
If only we had an industry whose purpose was to delve past the untruths offered up by public officials and political parties, investigate potential problems, and then make their findings available to the general public in form easily accessed by the average person. That would be great.
The media, Democrats (with preciously rare exception,) our sprawling bureaucracy and a significant number of establishment Republicans have completely lost any moral authority they might have had with the American people. They have lied for years about many things, not just this, but the difference is that the proof like a rotting fish in your car, just can’t be ignored or removed.
The question is, will the American people hold them accountable or even remember? Somehow, I doubt it.
The big question. Who was using the auto-pen?
Cue the Edith Wilson comparisons.
That’s for sure!