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I joined my Northeastern colleagues Costas Panagopoulos and Nick Beauchamp in analyzing President Biden’s news conference and the media’s performance for Northeastern Global News. My take: The state of Biden’s cognitive condition is a huge and legitimate story, but it’s been marred by a journalistic feeding frenzy:
Looking back at the last several weeks, Kennedy says it’s almost as if “we’ve forgotten that anything else is going on in the entire world.”
“At some point when we look back on this, we’re going to say that there was a really important, substantive issue that had to be dealt with — that is, the question of whether the president is in cognitive decline — and yet the media still didn’t acquit itself very well,” Kennedy says.
Panagopoulos’ and Beauchamp’s assessments of the news conference itself: Biden was strong enough to help himself a little, but not strong enough to change anyone’s minds about whether he should stay in the race.
“It’s unlikely to silence calls for him to step aside,” said Panagopoulos. Added Beauchamp: “I don’t know if that’s going to be enough of a difference for people who are counting on his abilities. But I think he went out there and delivered what he was there to do.”
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John Stoer’s take is here:
https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/joe-biden-tests/
“If he can’t show “a plan” or demonstrate “proof” or provide “evidence,” Biden should drop out of the running.
My absolute favorite version of this manufactured standard of excellence centers on the word “test” – as in, if Biden fails the “test,” whatever that “test” may be, he must vacate his party’s nomination.”
“So it’s no longer enough “to show the depth of his foreign policy knowledge and to demonstrate his command of national security issues,” as Maeve Reston said. It’s not enough to give “coherent thoughts on complex topics, like China’s coercive economic policies and NATO’s collective defense role,” as John Hudson said. It’s not enough to call on 10 reporters to answer 19 questions in an hour.
No, he had to be flawless.
Biden made two mistakes.
So he failed.”
Steve, yeah, well just about everyone is saying that Biden helped himself, at least a little bit. I also don’t think anyone other than the MAGA right is making much of “Vice President Trump.” I don’t know who Stoer is.
I do not think the amount of decline per se is the issue here. It is that the media itself feels a sense of betrayal. They took the word of handlers that this was just a bad moment, move along, nothing to see. They dispensed quotes and stances in stories, without checking accuracy because they feel comfortable with the proxies who would NEVER betray or mislead them. Their reputations as journalists have taken a hard hit, but they cannot respond without exposing how much they passed along as accurate without checking on the source they felt accurate – mainly because they agreed with them.
Cynthia, I think it was two things: The story was incredibly difficult to get at; and the press really didn’t want to know what they would find. Which is kind of what you’re saying.