How The Media Invalidates Biden (Part I)

Let’s face it: old people in America are renowned only for their farts and complaints — not for their wisdom and experience. That might explain why Joe Biden has become the perfect target for the media’s ageism bias. He’s definitely old. More importantly though, he’s also a Democrat.

That means he has to endure even more slams and slurs than other old Republican Presidents Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan.

Ever notice how the media keeps reminding us ad nauseam that Biden can do nothing, absolutely nothing, right? No matter what he does, no matter how correct his decisive actions turn out to be, he still gets mercilessly criticized. For everything. He’s portrayed both in print and on air as bumbling fool whenever anything goes wrong, or as embarrassing cipher whenever he accomplishes anything at all.

And everything seems to be his fault. From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the baby formula shortage, he gets the blame. Far worse, though, is how he’s getting scapegoated for what the former Republican President, as well as acting Republican congressmen and senators, have done.

Consider, for example, Biden’s handling of the economy. Although Trump repeatedly complained about “the big mess” of an economy that he’d inherited from President Obama, Trump himself was the one who left the economy a lot worse for Biden to untangle when he assumed the office of President.

Since Biden took office, however, the federal budget deficit dropped from $2.8 trillion to $1.4 trillion for the fiscal year 2022. Not a bad achievement, especially for an old Democrat who keeps getting described as a “gaffe machine.” Especially when Trump and his MAGA GOP Congress allowed billion dollar corporations to continue paying no federal taxes at all, and then gave more tax breaks to ultra rich Americans. You don’t need to be a genius in economics to know that such misplaced favoritism would damage our economy.

And yet, The New York Times wasted no time in raising doubts about Biden’s competence when he took some credit for this economic turnaround during a recent news conference.

Now if you’re a writer, you already know how the connotation of words can unduly affect reading perception and understanding — or even change meaning or intent. If you’re not clear on how this technique of deftly telegraphing emotions and biases works, then let’s examine how it’s done. Let’s look at an article that was published in The New York Times on October 22, 2022. Note the opening tone — so subtle it seems invisible — of the slanted headline:
“Federal Budget Deficit Is Cut Roughly in Half, Which Biden Attributes to ‘Responsible’ Policies”
As if President Biden’s “responsibility” in lowering the deficit is somehow in question?

Then, instead of merely quoting the comments Biden made, the reporters gave this editorial slant about his delivery:
“President Biden trumpeted the deficit reduction on Friday morning, saying the fact that it was cut roughly in half was evidence that his economic policies were working…”

“Trumpeted?" Really?

So this President of The United States didn’t deserve the less emotionally loaded verbs the other old Presidents got? Biden couldn’t just state, announce, declare, affirm, offer, or avow that his fiscal policies were working and had resulted in a significant reduction? No, Biden trumpeted. And that verb had the emotional coloring of “sounding or loudly proclaiming” or bragging with an air of vanity or insolence.

(Gee, Trump used to trumpet everything that came out of his mouth but rarely, if ever, did any journalist use that word when describing his pompous speech…)

Wow. Talk about reporters projecting their own biases onto public figures. If that’s not a clear-cut example of invalidating Biden, here’s some more copy:
“Mr. Biden seized on the moment to also portray the November congressional elections as not a referendum on his administration but a ‘choice’ between his economic agenda and the policies that he said a Republican-controlled Congress would put in effect.”

Words matter, and the way they’re presented and framed in a news story like this one can have lasting effects and consequences when it comes to assimilating and understanding given information.

Unfortunately, by the time most readers would get to the 5th paragraph of this article, they’d be seriously doubting President Biden’s reliability and credibility as cognizant Chief Executive.

“‘It’s mega-MAGA trickle down,’ Biden said. He blamed Republicans for fueling the deficit during the Trump administration with large tax cuts. ‘The kind of policies that have failed the country before, and it’ll fail again,’ he said.”

As if to inflict more skepticism on anything the President had said, there was yet another Republican-based opinion that denied Biden credit. “Deficit hawks” (i.e., more Republicans) said the deficit shrank because pandemic relief spending and the $1.9 trillion America Rescue Plan were phased out…NOT because of anything Biden did. “In fact, the deficit would have been almost $400 billion lower had the Biden administration not decided to enact an inflationary, costly and regressive student debt cancellation plan in August.”(That’s according to this conservative think tank for deficit relief.)

To their credit, however, The New York Times usually gives its readers balanced reporting. At least, this newspaper tries for discernible fairness in reporting. As critical as they’re been with President Biden, journalists working there have also pointed out that Republicans have no real economic plan to tame inflation. Despite the GOP’s continuous blaming and shaming of Democrats for the record-high cost of living, Republicans haven’t offered any feasible or viable solutions to bring prices down, either. That’s not opinion, that’s factual observation.

So regardless of your political affiliation, you’ll have to admit the The New York Times tries to deliver news with equal opportunity skepticism. Too bad you can’t say that about other media outlets. If too many Republicans own or operate the newspapers or networks, fairness will fly right out the window. And Democrats like Joe Biden will be on the path to impeachment, for no other reason than The Big Money’s dislike of his politics.

If that sounds too bizarre to be true, dear readers, then the GOP’s M.O. is working effectively as planned. Republicans aren’t just excelling at using their political propaganda, they’re doing it in such a sneaky savvy way that a lot of voters don’t realize they’re being conned. Republican manipulation can make discrepancies, contradictions, and outright lies seem true. And unlike other reputable journalists, GOP-controlled media offers no other viewpoints.

How is that possible?

But how can the Republican Party that wants to nationally outlaw abortion, eliminate Social Security and Medicare, defund public education, eliminate financial safety nets, then keep giving tax breaks to the wealthy and their corporations manipulate voters to happily and mindlessly vote for them?

For a better handle on how GOP propaganda works, go to
How The Media(Esp. Republicans) Invalidates Biden
(PART II).