Dan Froomkin writes in Press Watch about the media coverage of the Biden classified documents report in which Trumpist Special Counsel Robert Hur chose to critique Biden's age and memory. He wonders "When is a huge news story not a huge news story?" Here's an extended excerpt:
"...Has there ever been a screaming front-page headline about Trump’s abundant mental deficiencies? His repeated displays of memory loss and confusion are actually among the least concerning of his mental problems, which include paranoia, incoherence, narcissism, and sociopathy.
There are way more important questions the political press corps should be obsessing over than how Biden presents himself, namely: How is Biden governing? How would Trump govern? And which man is more dangerous?
On Biden’s first full day in office in 2021, I published a post headlined “After obsessive focus on Trump, White House reporters need to zoom way out.” My argument was that covering the Trump White House was easy, because all that mattered was Trump. I suggested that Washington journalists needed to shift gears and actually write about governance.
Instead, the press corps essentially continued to hold Biden to a Trumpian standards, and has found him lacking because he isn’t as entertaining and commanding as Trump was.
At the same time, they largely give Trump a pass for saying outrageous things, some of which he means, some of which are simply misfires of his brain.
As it happens, there was big news Thursday night: Biden finally stating publicly that “the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip has been over the top.” But you wouldn’t know it from Friday’s coverage... (our emphasis)
Frromkin notes some of the pushback this narrative is getting from media critics and some political writers (not to mention the White House). To be fair, we've noticed some news organizations linking coverage of the purported Biden age and memory issues directly with the Malignant Loser's far more egregious and frequent examples of soggy brain. But that's not the essential point, as Froomkin notes. Yes Biden's old, everybody gets that. But people who've dealt closely with him, including political adversaries, say he's sharp and up to the job. It's also true that gaffes and misremembering have been part of his political persona for the past 40 years. And it's also true that, barring unforeseen events, the choice in November will be between a remarkably effective and successful President and an authoritarian sociopathic moron who would forever change the nature of our country for the worse. If that's going to be the choice, everything else is distracting, dangerous noise.
BONUS: As usual, it will fall to the Biden campaign to do all the heavy lifting that many in the media won't do.
