Media falls asleep under Biden administration
The news media was hard on Trump and soft on Biden. When Trump did things wrong or things that the media disliked, he was attacked viciously. There is no such judgment on Biden who can pretty much say anything, make any mistake and not face the media scrutiny or consequences.
By Ray Hanania
Poor news media. It was so much fun attacking President Trump. His clownish rhetoric made it easy for them to jump all over him at press conferences, public appearances and on every platform available.
If Trump said he would do something, the media would find every flaw and explain how he failed.
And, yet, the media seems to have fallen into a partisan slumber when it comes to President Joseph Biden’s stumbles, since they succeeded in helping to oust Trump from office last November. No scrutiny for Biden on anything, including his son’s clearly conflicted international consulting work.
Now, I’m not saying Biden, 78, is a bad guy. This isn’t about Biden or Trump. It is about the news media and their hypocrisy.
For example, at the G-7 Summit in the UK last week, Biden kept confusing Syria with Libya in his remarks about the violence that Russia’s tyrant “president” Vladimir Putin is enabling by arming Syria’s terrorist leader, Bashar al-Assad.
Of course, had it been Trump that vowed to stop Putin in Libya, rather than in Syria where the communist KGB killer has been building up his forces, the media would have ripped Trump to pieces.
“We can work together with Russia, for example in, in Libya,” Biden said not just once, but repeatedly.
Hey, we Arabs all look the same, I guess. Libyans. Syrians. Palestinians. Pakistanis.
Afterwards, Biden’s aides confirmed the President meant to refer to Syria, not Libya and the news media just shrugged.
Despite some minor references to Biden’s Syria-Libya stumble, it was the foreign media that covered it with legitimate concern.
Had Trump made this mistake at the G-7 Summit, the news media would be running screaming headlines about how he would drag the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust with his lack of knowledge.
It’s not the first pass the media has given Biden.
The media spent a full year defending China against Trump’s criticism that the brutal Chinese Communist tyrants were the origin of the coronavirus. Instead of bashing the Chinese government – one of the most vicious world governments even worse that Iran and North Korea – the media kept the focus on Trump.
So, when Biden took over, the media flipped like smelt in the Spring on Chicago’s lakefront. In his first prime time television address to the nation on March 11, Biden said that he would ensure that by July 4, 160 million Americans would be fully vaccinated and that 70 percent of Americans would have at least one vaccination.
Ooops!
The media has spent the past two weeks explaining why he won’t come close, and that it’s not his fault.
Had this been Trump, the news media would be crucifying him, alleging his failed leadership jeopardizes the health of the American people. Blah, blah, blah.
Let’s be honest. We all make mistakes. I make mistakes. You make mistakes. And even presidents make mistakes. But it’s not about the mistakes. It’s about the nefarious and intentional hypocrisy of the mainstream news media to exaggerate Trump’s mistakes and turn them into crisis, while downplaying and white-washing Biden’s mistakes as if they are frivolous.
The news media today isn’t like the news media of the past. They take sides openly, and spin information to align with their interests for those they like, while injuring those they dislike.
Much of what looks like “news” is really opinion commentary. They lack the honesty of telling you that they are not providing news but are instead spinning opinion to make it sound more believable. It’s not.
This column is pure opinion. You know it because I tell you from Word One. I don’t pretend this objective news. No. I tell you what I think based on what I see based on 45 years of political and news writing experience. You know up front it’s my opinion, and you can agree or disagree. It’s your choice. I respect your intelligence to decide for yourself. I don’t bully you if we disagree.
What’s not supposed to be biased is news reporting, reporting the events and the facts as they happen.
Don’t expect that from the mainstream news media when it comes to Biden. The reason is the news media doesn’t think you are smart. They judge you based on who you support. Half of the country that supported Trump is demonized and ridiculed by the news media. Hillary Clinton called them the “deplorables” because for her, and the news media, name-calling is the only way to distract you from her own lies.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and political columnist. This column was originally published in the Southwest News Newspaper Group in the Des Plaines Valley News, Southwest News-Herald, The Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers. For more information on Ray Hanania visit www.Hanania.com or email him at rghanania@gmail.com.)
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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