5 Comments

Agree mostly with this except it's not an abiding faith in the office of the Presidency in the Beltway press, since they'd never give any Democratic President this much benefit of the doubt, it's a cultish adherence to the infallibility of important white men. This is a large part of why Biden is winning the primary, with core Dem voters correctly recognizing he is at least a safer choice, as a white man, with both large segments of the electorate and the media. "Both sides" coverage is really thinly-disguised anti-Democrat bias - we rep women, PoC, LGBTQ, other marginalized groups AKA "the help" - and it is so much more about demographics than ideology.

Expand full comment

I refuse to attribute any charitable explanation for the abject horror that describes 99% of the political media. They have had 3.5 years and untold human suffering to adjust their thinking and manner of reporting. Instead, they refuse to hold this president accountable (with a few notable exceptions). Peter ("I don't vote") Baker is one of the most egregious but hardly stands alone in his stenographical reporting and insistence on neutrality in the face of corruption and death. Just as Trump refuses to step back and allow health experts to lead, political reporters refuse to step back and allow health reporters to lead during this national crisis. I can only hope that more of us will focus on independent journalists, subject matter experts, and true investigative journalists in the months and years to come. This will be one of the few silver linings to emerge from these dark days.

Expand full comment

IMO - they're deathly afraid of losing access and therefore their paychecks. And probably deathly scared of angering his NRA loving cult who are quick to respond with threats of violence.

Expand full comment

I think the White House reporters have developed a culture of accommodation to GOP presidents. For a variety of reasons, today's reporters don't have the resolve to hold GOP presidents and press secretaries truly accountable in real time and in their press briefing analyses.

There is also a parallel fetish of both-siderism because, again, in trying to accommodate the right-wing propaganda that the media has a liberal bias, the mainstream media has bent over backwards to swallow much of the nonsense spewed by this president. The White House press corps can therefore delude itself that there exists some normality when it's bluntly evident that there is nothing normal going on here. It's also a reason why the mainstream media and the White House press corps in particular is overly harsh toward Democratic presidents.

One more thing to consider is that because this individual is so totally incompetent, the bar for adequate performance is really low. When he demonstrates even the slightest bit of focus that would be typical for any previous president, the media and frankly, some center-left pundits fall over in praising him.

Expand full comment