On the cusp of the first presidential debate, the “news” media have two partisan spins. They obsess over Trump’s arrest in Georgia and play up his legal jeopardy, while their coverage of President Biden avoids all gaffes and blunders and touts the “Empathizer in Chief” in Maui. The tone of the Republican news is all black clouds and thunder, while the Biden news is sunny days and leis.
Bill D’Agostino joins the show to discuss, for example, CNN’s Bill Weir touting Biden as “Empathizer-in-Chief” at the same time CNN spends hours on end discussing Trump’s impending arrest in Fulton County, Georgia. What should be Thursday’s news is also Monday’s news, Tuesday’s news, and Wednesday’s news. Biden’s gaffes in Hawaii were carefully scrubbed from the narrative.
After CNN’s Jake Tapper trashed Fox News and Laura Ingraham on Twitter for suggesting CNN and MSNBC were getting thrills up their leg over a Trump mug shot, Tapper admitted that Trump was right and Biden was wrong (ahem, lying) about Hunter Biden pocketing millions from China, et al. That’s not “fact-checking in real time” — in 2020, before the voting was over. It’s fact-checking on an incredibly delayed basis.
Speaking of being late on the facts, The Washington Post editorial board acknowledged reality on Tuesday morning with an article headlined “In Wuhan, doctors knew the truth. They were told to keep quiet.” If you said this in 2020, you were a right-wing kook. But now it’s acceptable reality.
Before the debates, we wonder if any candidate could make a positive impression by admitting it’s unrealistic to propose incredibly specific policy proposals when it’s likely Congress will amend it, if not ignore it. Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.