Eric Boehlert: What a mess -- the media's dopey Biden gotcha stories

[babylonsister]

https://pressrun.media/p/what-a-mess-the-medias-dopey-biden

What a mess — the media's dopey Biden gotcha stories
Return of the Optics Police
Eric Boehlert
33 min ago


Leaning hard into the task of creating conflict and controversy where none exists, the Beltway press is trying its best to rustle up gotcha stories that ding President Joe Biden. Struggling to adjust to the new media landscape that does not feature a narcissistic, pathological liar president, and one who does not purposely create outrage, journalists are swinging and missing as they work too hard to manufacture news.

Biden travels during the pandemic! Biden wears a Rolex! Biden hasn't given a press conference! Biden hasn't credited Trump for the vaccine! Biden hasn't "united" the nation! The breathless exercise is already tedious. And it's only March.

In a way this is the Beltway press returning to "normalcy" after Trump's four years of deliberate chaos. And normalcy for the D.C. media is pelting Democrats with gotcha stories about optics and how something the president has done doesn't look right, as determined by journalists. Not that the president has done anything wrong. Just that it doesn't feel right, and that now that gets treated as Important News, just months after a president who ran the White House as a criminal enterprise and tried to demolish free and fair elections in America left office.

snip//

Over this weekend, the Associated Press returned to a weird Biden gotcha storyline: He should avoid air travel during the pandemic. "The White House defends those [Delaware] visits at a time when the administration is urging the public to avoid unnecessary travel," the AP tweeted.

The wire service first pushed the Fox News-sponsored narrative last month, stressing that Biden's decision to fly on the weekend to his home in Delaware ran counter to CDC pandemic guidelines. The obvious hole in the gotcha story is that the CDC urges Americans not to travel because it wants people to avoid crowded airports and crowded planes, which is not something Biden has to encounter as the President of the United States. The idea that the Oval Office occupant cannot safely travel one year into a pandemic makes no sense.

Fact: Biden has deliberately unplugged Trump's outrage treadmill. The press needs to adjust and stop trying to concoct gotcha news.

[Deminpenn]

1. The daily Trumpian chaos and outrage was quite addicting

to reporters and cable news. I thought they'd have a hard time kicking the habit.

The WH holds press briefings daily, so there's plenty of chances to ask substantive questions and get substantive answers back.

[Lonestarblue]

10. Most of the media no longer does anything substantive.

It’s hit-and-run headlines to create controversy or to get those all important clicks. It seems that some reporters want that big story to help make their careers, even if they have to slant the news to create a conflict that doesn’t exist.

I remember a WaPo article from a week or so ago where the writer was basically calling Democrats hypocrites for trashing Greg Abbott’s decision to open Texas and allow no masks when Connecticut was doing the same. The writer conveniently left out that Connecticut was still requiring masks AND had vaccinated a far larger percentage of people than Texas, especially those in the 70+ group—something like 70% for the elderly for CT compared to 8% for Texas. This was a news article, not an opinion piece. It was a sloppy hit job without the reporter bothering to get or report all the facts.

We need the media, but much of it sure is irritating these days.

[Botany]

2. Joe and his crew are too busy working to have time for the B.S.

1.36% of the U.S. population got a vaccine Saturday and we just passed 106 million vaccines given.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215227080

BTW Joe would no doubt like to ride the train to Delaware but he can't because of security concerns.

[KS Toronado]

11. Joe does enjoy his train rides, maybe he could pull U.S. Car No.1 out of retirement

We could promote it as we have a real down to earth President who's going "Green"

https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/us_car_number_one.html

[abqtommy]

3. I learned long ago that most of the U.S. media is a waste of air. Who's with me?

Last edited Mon Mar 15, 2021, 02:35 PM - Edit history (1)

[not fooled]

17. Yep

Or worse, actively propagandizing and coaching the public to think a certain way convenient to big corporations while exposing people to only a subset of facts and information.

[True Blue American]

21. Me!

Gossip, peddling, rumor mongering, anything for a couple of minutes face time!

[LaMouffette]

4. Until Joe Biden incites an angry mob to attack the Capitol, Fox News needs to shut the hell up.

I'm so sick of the antagonistic "attack politics." It's like a three-legged race, with partners strapped to each other's leg, except when the starter yells, "Go!" one of the partners (the Republican one; there is no both-sides-er-ism to it) repeatedly tries to push her or his own partner to the ground.

Hmm. If it weren't for Covid, that might not be a bad idea. Strap a Republican to a Democrat for a month and see if good manners and cooperation might rub off a little on the Republican.

[UpInArms]

5. Funny ...

I never read those other breathless headlines:

Trump travels during the pandemic!
Trump wears a Rolex!
Trump hasn't given a press conference!
Trump hasn't credited pharmaceuticals for the vaccine!
Trump hasn't "united" the nation!

Crap media makes me sick.

[George II]

6. But "he hasn't held a press conference in 50 days!" By the way, that trip to Delaware is only....

....90 miles. That's not really "traveling". I drove 40 miles each way for my first job years ago.

[IronLionZion]

7. So much for the "liberal" media

Trump was openly hostile to these people. Biden is not.

[Tommymac]

8. Dog-gone Press.

Leave my Joe alone.

[Frustratedlady]

12. My first thought when I saw Biden flew home was..."He misses his dogs!"

I'm surprised they didn't exploit that point. I'm sure his dogs relieve a lot of stress and Joe will totally ignore many of the media's comments.

Trump made their jobs easier by acting like president (note the small p) and being on display 24/7 for the attention he desires. Now, they have to work at it

Good ol' Joe and his dogs. Bless him.

[yuiyoshida]

9. The complaints must be coming from the other side of the aisle

you know that side that threw down their popcorn on the floor, or candy wrappers... THEY MUST be talking about Fox News and Tucker Carlson because the complaint isn't coming from MSNBC or CNN .. I don't think.

[PatrickforB]

13. The oligarchs have taken control of the media. It began with the

Powell Manifesto, and the death of the Fairness Doctrine, followed by the deregulation of telecommunications, and most recently Trump's May 2020 FCC ruling allowing foreign governments to purchase our media outlets. So now we have six major corporations controlling virtually all the media, and the news become 'infotainment' because it is beholden to ratings and shareholder profits.

Now, all they have to do is take over the Supreme Court and the Federal Appelate courts.

Whoops!

Now, all they have to do is pack the Executive agencies, particularly DoJ, FBI, CIA, NSA and Pentagon.

Okay, we are fighting back there.

Finally, they have to take over legislatures at the state and federal levels with bought-and-paid-for politicians who will do what think tanks like ALEC tell them to...

Well, we have problems here.

See, the real enemy to the people is not the Republicans. Not really. Because they are bespoke, owned by the oligarchs. The real enemy is the oligarchs that control Wall Street, the MIC, the prison-industrial-complex, and so on.

One study, recently cited by Thomas Hartmann (I know some of you don't like him, but he does speak truth to power), found that while oligarchs can get pretty much anything they want from Congress (for example the giant 2017 tax cut for billionaires and corporations), the odds of people like us getting Congress to do stuff that we want or need are pretty much nil. Biden is fighting that, but it will be a hard uphill slog because of the filibuster.

So, we ARE fighting the good fight, but that fight is against the cancer of oligarchy.

[not fooled]

19. +++++++++++++++++++++++

Great post. How we got here, in a nutshell.

[DallasNE]

14. Follow The Money - Gotcha Stories Sell

It is always about the money and the bottom line.

Biden's travel to Delaware is laughable compared to the near daily campaign stops Trump was making in October-December.

[rickford66]

15. Everytime I hear "The President" I gringe until I remember who is President.

[Peregrine Took]

16. As Eric said today - they are dying to ask their 2 "gotcha"

questions at this first press conference:

Why wasn't the Relief Bill bipartisan and why didn't you give trump credit for his vaccine rollout program in your speech?

He has never proven to be more correct in his analysis of the anti Democratic bias from the east coast press than writing this article.

[Rocknation]

18. Thanks, Eric, for confirming that this WASN'T a fluke

Last edited Tue Feb 1, 2022, 02:31 PM - Edit history (11)

Posted by Rocknation 3/12/21:

Newsflash, Salon (if you'll pardon the expression): Trump LOST the popular vote in 2016 and lost it by TWICE as much in 2020 -- why wasn't THAT worth mentioning? Why is it so far out of the realm of possibility that Trump's popularity could have simply diminished(?)

Posted By Rocknation 3/13/21:

A new book...about Joe Biden's campaign for president is called Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency...

...I suppose Biden WAS "lucky" that Trump DIDN'T inflate his popularity with his big lies, race-baiting, despotic management style, possible dementia -- oh, and escorting a half-million-casualty pandemic across the country. Which MIGHT explain why there were 26 million MORE voters in 2020 than in 2016, and why Biden was "lucky" enough that nearly sixty per cent of them sided with him...

rocktivity

[Blue Owl]

20. Before it was unplugged, Mitch McConnell was briefly seen on t***p's outrage treadmill

[peggysue2]

22. The media became addicted to the daily outrages

And the stories wrote themselves with all the sordid details.

But with Joe Biden at the helm? Journalists will need to start looking at boring policy and political details/analyses, dig deeper for the meat of an issue, instead of writing breathless tabloid pieces.

Poor dears. The withdrawal from chaos will be ugly and difficult.

And yes, the frenzy to find a gotcha story is silly and a waste of ink and/or cyber effort.

[uponit7771]

23. K&R, its not like our country is in danger with voter suppression measures right now

[KY_EnviroGuy]

24. Someone should build a detox and recovery center for D.C. journalists...

including a video facility and library complete with all editions of Cronkite and Huntley-Brinkley....


KY.........

[pansypoo53219]

25. they need/want RATINGS.