The stark political reality facing President Joe Biden, prompting his unprecedented decision to exit the 2024 race, might look different had he enjoyed the support of a blindly loyal, propagandistic news media.

what-the-hell

While Donald Trump has relied on Fox News and an army of MAGA Media loyalists to endlessly shield him from scandal after scandal, Biden had no such defenses in his arsenal when serious questions were raised about his age and mental acuity

Silencing dissent? We would never

Instead, the president — unable to conjure up his own version of reality and successfully disseminate it to the masses

Not for lack of trying

was forced to grapple with the truth and make a stunning 11th hour decision that rocked the country in a political earthquake.

Emphasis mine

The entire affair, which played out in just three weeks, punctured a hole in the claim that Trump and the GOP have regularly peddled: that the news media is in the pocket of Biden and the White House. That obviously has not been the case, as exemplified by the hard-hitting coverage the president has been subjected to since his poor showing last month at the CNN debate.

Before that, it was a stutter

In the weeks since, those concerns repeatedly found their way to MSNBC’s air, despite a good chunk of the channel’s viewership making it clear they did not want to hear criticism of Biden.

Smh tankie MSNBC putlerites are trying to stop dark brandon’s ascension

In fact, in the end, the news media played a notable role in the unraveling of Biden’s campaign by offering a forum for an uncomfortable stream of questions about his abilities to enter the national discourse.

obama-medal

Had the news media looked the other way and run cover for Biden, he very well may not have felt the need to abandon his bid for a second term in office.

lenin-dont-laugh

  • crystaline_porpoise [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    Nice emphasis on forced. If Trump went into a coma on the debate stage like Biden did and hundreds of millions of people saw it live and were like “wow what the fuck” then Fox would have had to do the same thing.

    I mean its not like Biden has enjoyed perversely distorted and favorable coverage from every single liberal media outlet on every imaginable fucking issue including a motherfucking genocide for 4 years, Covid, border policy, labor law, debt forgiveness, etc and yes, his obviously melting brain which we knew about for forever and yall were all like “NUH UH, NO, NO NO SHUT UP!!!”

      • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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        4 months ago

        That’s more comparable to the rare senior moments we were allowed to see from Biden over the past three years (see also Pelosi and Feinstein). Short moments, small audiences.

        Not being able to speak coherently for over an hour on national TV is much more difficult to hide or spin.

        • Hydra_Fk@reddthat.com
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          4 months ago

          My guy, all the previous examples; none of that shit is acceptable. “Greatest Nation in the World.” Figure it out.

            • Hydra_Fk@reddthat.com
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              4 months ago

              “senior moments” shouldn’t be acceptable let alone a common occurrence of multiple politicians in the greatest country on earth.

              • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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                4 months ago

                Of course not. But you seemed to be asking why Fox didn’t run wall-to-wall coverage of McConnell’s brain explosion the way CNN covered Biden’s at the debate. I’m suggesting Fox could bury coverage of McConnell (the same way CNN has buried coverage of Pelosi and Feinstein) because it occurred at a much smaller scale than a presidential debate.