Who Ya Gonna Believe, Part 47

Dear Reader: While this article deals with the aftermath of the recent Presidential debate, I am not speaking for or against either candidate.  I’m not trying to change your mind about either candidate.  I am trying to illustrate yet one more example of our corporate media demonstrating their unprofessional, and incurious behavior.

I don’t know about you, but I was not shocked or surprised about the performances given in the recent presidential debate.  I was not shocked because over the last couple of years I’ve seen and heard many examples of our President’s physical and cogitative decline.  What did shock me was the absolute 180 degree turn that our corporate media displayed after the debate performance of our President. 

If previously you had seen videos of our president exhibiting language or behavior that was unflattering to him and you were still shocked by the debate then perhaps you believed it when you were told these were “cheap fakes.”  A “cheap fake” is, effectively, selective editing of an undoctored audio or video file.  For example, a video of a politician that is cut down in such a way as to change he meaning of their words is a “cheap fake.” 

So, do you think we were lied to when we were told that unflattering videos of the President were cheap fakes?

Then, there was the frankly astounding reversal of those in the corporate media who, just days before the debate were extolling the mental and physical strength of the President:

Joe Scarborough, pre debate: “…start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth.  And eff you if you can’t handle the truth.  This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever.  Not a close second.  And I have known him for years.  The Brzezinskis have known him for 50 years.  If it weren’t the truth I wouldn’t say it.”

Before the debate:

• Rep. Dan Goldman, (D) New York on CNN: “President Biden has a photographic memory.  His understanding and mastery of a complicated geopolitical situation is remarkable.”

• Mayorkas on MSNBC: “He is sharp, intensely probing, detail oriented and focused.”

• Scarborough on MSNBC: “He has trouble walking sometimes, but so did FDR.  He won a GD war.”

• Paul Begalia on MSNBC: “…but he’s totally focused and he’s very sharp.”

• David Axelrod on CNN: “They say he’s sharp in meetings….”

• Paul Krugman on MSNBC: “…very lucid…very well informed….there hasn’t been a single claim that Biden made a mistake.”

• Donny Deuch on MSNBC: “Biden is stately, he comes across with gravitas.”

• Van Jones on CNN: “Joe Biden may not be able to speak for himself they way he used to…I think that people should speak up for Joe Biden.”

• Jake Tapper on CNN to Chris Koons, Senator, (D) Delaware: “Have you heard any concerns from anyone who has met with President Biden about him seeming a little slower?”  Koons: “No.”

* * *

After the debate, not so much:

Joe Scarborough 6/28/2024: “I think it’s critical that we ask the same questions about this man I love, respect and whose public service in saving this country from Donald Trump over the last three and a half years I honor and always will.  I think we need to ask the same questions of him that we’ve asked of Donald Trump since 2016 and that is, if he were CEO and he turned in a performance like that would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 corporation in America keep him on as CEO?”

* * *

I could continue but there’s no need to pile on.  Plus, I think we’re all hearing the same news now that the rats are deserting a sinking ship.

To me, all this begs the question: were “they” willfully hiding the infirmities of the President from the American public?  Or, if they weren’t, could they possibly be that blind, that inept?  And if they were hiding these infirmities, what else are they hiding? 

Either way, can we ever trust them?

Here’s an example of this journalistic malpractice.  According to Chuck Todd of NBC News: “…I had a cabinet secretary two years ago, okay?  Two years ago, out of the blue asked me, ‘You really think he’s gonna — he can’t run again like this.’  And I said ‘Well, you have more interaction with him than I do,’ and they said, ‘I don’t have a lot of interaction with him.’  This is a pretty senior cabinet secretary.  So, and this was two years ago…this is one of those, you know, it’s the classic open secret, conversation, right?  It’s the story everybody knows and everybody was afraid to talk about.”

Sounds like the kind of blockbuster story that any legitimate journalist would savor.

So, what lessons have we learned from this?

Personally, I haven’t trusted the corporate media for some time.  I do not get my news from a single source.  (In fact, I no longer subscribe to regular broadcast TV, so now I receive my news from a wide variety of published sources.)

I do believe that we live in bubbles.  We tend to associate with people of the same mind set, listen to the same news, read the same newspapers.  Often, we cannot have a civil conversation with someone who politically opposes us.  Unfortunately, these bubbles insolate us from “uncomfortable” information.

I’d love to hear your opinion and to have a constructive discussion.