Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on special dispensation given Joe Biden by members of Congress, commentators, and the media. We previously discussed the muted media response to false legal comments from President Barack Obama and other Obama officialson the Flynn case. The pattern of media avoidance is more glaring with recent Biden controversies. Notably, the column ran when Biden gave his interview on the radio show “The Breakfast Club” that “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” This weekend, I was critical of segments on CNN and NBC’s Meet the Press which quoted Biden but cut off the line where he falsely claimed to have received multiple endorsements from the NAACP. CNN’s John King derisively referred to controversy as something people are “trying to make hay” out of and then played the interview. However, CNN clipped the tape to leave out the next line where Biden declared “The NAACP has endorsed me every time I’ve run. Come on, take a look at my record.” Despite that invitation to look at his record, CNN and other media routinely cut out the false statement and also omitted any discussion of the false claim linked to the NAACP. On a story about Biden’s claim that all black voters must vote for him (or not be truly black), it would seem material that he also falsely claimed endorsements from the leading organization in the African American community. However, it was routinely omitted from the tape and Biden has not been asked to respond to the rebuttal from the NAACP. It is precisely the type of crafting of the coverage to confine damage for Biden that is discussed in the column.
Here is the column: Continue reading “Why Joe Biden Can Do No Wrong” →
We have been discussing how the media has largely shielded Vice President Joe Biden from serious questions over recent controversies ranging from his refusal to allow his papers to be searched for sexual abuse allegations to his false claim of repeated NAACP endorsements. Times reporter and CNN analyst Lisa Lerer is under fire for a list of probing questions for Tara Reade, who has accused Biden of raping her when she worked for him as one of his Senate aides. Lerer wants answers to questions ranging from past landlord issues to her ex-husband’s legal problems to financial troubles to how she knows three Russians. Imagine if Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was hit with a list of such questions during the Kavanaugh controversy. Conversely, the media has continued to hit Biden with such hard-hitting questions as whether a true leader wears a mask in a recent CNN interview. What is fascinating is that these questions largely went without objection from mainstream media despite the inverse response to questions of the accusers in the Kavanaugh and Thomas confirmations.
I have a 
We have been 
Scarborough’s co-host and wife Mika Brzezinki is calling for President Donald Trump to be banned on Twitter after he resumed his bizarre pushing of a conspiracy theory that Joe Scarborough murdered an intern in 2001. I have long denounced the President’s use of the tragic story of Lori Klausutis as callous and wrong. There is not a shred of support for this claim and the constant tweets from the President only adds to this tragedy for the Klausutis family. As I noted yesterday, “politics ain’t beanbag” but it is also not a license for such malicious slandering of your critics. Having said that, I do not support the effort to ban Trump from Twitter. I have 
Below is my column in USA Today on concerns over the recent orders of U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan. As leading lawyers, including 
We have been discussing the hypocrisy in the response of 
There is yet another criminal allegation being raised by legal analysts against President Donald Trump. It seems that every controversial statement by Trump is immediately reframed in criminal terms by the very same experts who declared a myriad of other crimes over the last three years. The latest criminal allegation stems from Trump’s tweet that claimed 
The 
For decades, the legal community has decried common practices used by prosecutors to coerce pleas from defendants. Prosecutors often stack up charges and then drain defendants until they agree to pleading guilty. There was a time when such abuses were regularly called out in leading newspapers. These are not those times. 
We have previously discussed the uncertain standard applying to teachers and professors who are subject to discipline for social media postings. It often seems that any termination or discipline is based upon subjective or majoritarian views of the content of postings. The latest such case is out of Catholic University of America where adjunct professor John Tieso has been suspended after tweets ridiculing Barack Obama and Kamala Harris after working for the school since 2013.