Emptywheel: "Peter Baker Argues Joe Biden Is Unfit because Peter Baker Is Too Lazy to Read the Homework"

[lapucelle]

Peter Baker Argues Joe Biden Is Unfit because Peter Baker Is Too Lazy to Read the Homework

The NYT and ABC have now joined the insane mob tying the White House visits of a neurologist who has written papers on topics that include Parkinson’s, Dr. Kevin Cannard, to their wild brays that Joe Biden is unfit to stay in the race. The NYT version is particularly remarkable, because Peter Baker, along with NYT’s health care correspondent, Emily Baumgaertner, describe Dr. Cannard’s specialty as “movement disorder specialist.”

The expert, Dr. Kevin Cannard, is a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders and recently published a paper on Parkinson’s. The logs, released by the White House, document visits from July 2023 through March of this year. More recent visits, if there have been any, would not be released until later under the White House’s voluntary disclosure policy.

And they link the report from Biden’s physical earlier this year, which they then quote, describing that after “an extremely detailed neurologic exam,” doctors like Cannard and White House physician Kevin O’Connor determined that Biden did not have Parkinsons.

That means they had all the tools they needed, aside from some basic reading comprehension, I guess, to discover that elsewhere in the same report they linked, under the heading that included “neurology,” O’Connor described adding a movement disorder neurologic specialist — someone just like Dr. Cannard!!! — to advise him on Biden’s gait problems.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/07/08/peter-baker-argues-joe-biden-is-unfit-because-peter-baker-is-too-lazy-to-read-the-homework/

[spooky3]

1. Baker and the NYT deserve all of the pushback they are getting

On social media.

The argument that his gait or other movement has relevance to performance as a President is simply ridiculous.

And there are a lot of us with joint or other problems that prevent us from gliding gracefully as we may have done in our 20s, but we are mentally and physically fit enough to do whatever we need or want to do. Or, others may have disabilities. Do NYT reporters and pundits consider how offensive their Biden insults are to many of us?

[Beartracks]

4. Remember when the MSM made all this fuss about Trump's delicate baby steps going down a ramp?

And he had to have help doing even that.

Oh..... wait...... I might be mistaken about the MSM making a big deal about it for weeks and weeks. Never mind.

==================

[spooky3]

8. And they've really gone after TFG for all of the

Mental lapses in the past 3 months…

[Beartracks]

14. Apparently, Trump being demented, psychotic, a liar, felon, rapist, and insurrectionist is "old news."

Not worth MSM's time.

Never mind that the dementia seems to be getting worse EVEN NOW as he's running for President NOW.
Never mind that the lies continue unabated NOW as he's running for President NOW.
Never mind that his convictions are recent even as he's running for President NOW.
And he will always be an insurrectionist -- and, clinically, a psychopath. Anyone can see that TODAY watching him speak.
All of this isn't just history -- it's NOW, as he's running for President NOW.

It's like I said in another thread: the MSM is chasing laser pointer dots wielded by special interests invested in manipulating the electorate in Trump's favor.

================

[Evolve Dammit]

37. THIS! is the most un-freaking irony and dereliction of basic citizenry I have ever seen. n/t

[shrike3]

9. Peter Baker strikes me as a complete ass.

I've never seen him on MSNBC, but if I did I'd turn the channel.

[thenelm1]

21. I have seen him, and I do change the channel. He's useless. n/t

[Prairie Gates]

22. He was on much more during the Trump admin, when he would explain what Trump really meant

to all us idiots who couldn't grasp the context and nuance of Trump's incoherent babblings and endless attacks. He was the Trump translator, trying to make Trump sound reasonable. It was a disgraceful performance. Now he functions the other way, trying to make Biden sound unreasonable. The guy's a shitbag, really.

[shrike3]

24. Well, Trump had him and his editors in for a nice sit-down interview.

And they were apparently so agog they decided it absolutely had to happen with Biden. And when it didn't. No fair.

[paleotn]

19. They deserve vastly worse. Don't think for a second this will be forgotten.

[Desert grandma]

2. OMG!

Enough! Stop! No wonder Peter Baker did not get an interview with the President. These media people are vultures just waiting to attack. DISGUSTING!!!!

[FloridaBlues]

3. His movements remind me more of arthritic. Peter Baker now a specialist in medicine?

Perhaps he didn’t heal correctly with his broken foot as well.

[yorkster]

5. I read somewhere that Biden has some degree

of arthritis of the spine. This was months ago, don't remember the source.

[shrike3]

10. Osteoarthritis in the spine. Was noted in the medical exam at Walter Reed in February.

[yorkster]

12. Thx.

[spooky3]

18. Probably the majority of Americans his age have osteoarthritis as do

Many people younger. it’s very common.

[yorkster]

41. Yes, I have a sibling dealing with it.

[Attilatheblond]

31. I have that, am younger than Biden and my gait is often pretty bad

and sometimes I lose sleep due to the pain waking me often. But my brain is sharp and logic is still in my tool kit. I KNOW Biden is in better shape than me, smarter than me, and a much better person than me.

Arthritis in the spine is a weird, inconvenient thing, but it isn't Parkinson's or any of the other conditions the NY Times is suggesting. They are just throwing a tantrum cuz Biden didn't give them a golden ticket to pester him while he was busy saving the world.

And Peter Baker must be suffering writers block or he'd be working on another book to dazzle us all with* and have little time for being a dick.

*yes, sarcasm, Carol is the better writer.

[Evolve Dammit]

39. Don't we all?! Sorry 67 next week...

[Bev54]

7. When I broke my foot, shortly after it was healed I was diagnosed with arthritis in that same foot.

Not sure if one spurs the other but it often happens.

[Liberal In Texas]

42. Sure does. I broke a wrist in the 1980s. I was told I would have arthritis there someday.

Well, that day has come and gone. Pretty annoying arthritis in one wrist but not the other.

[sheshe2]

6. Some of the comments are brutal!

Thomas A Fine
July 8, 2024 at 5:25 pm
It is perhaps notable that Peter Baker was chasing Parkinson’s since 7/2 when an article he cowrote specifically singled out Parkinson’s in a long list of things that his health report said he didn’t have. It also makes it clear that NYT asked the white house at that time for comment on Parkinson’s specifically, among all the other things that the health report says he doesn’t have.

Which means several things:
• Baker is perfectly aware of the health report. It’s where he started from.
• NYT has had ample opportunity to find the many doctors who will say that the lack of any hand tremor in videos of him signing bills (like, I don’t know, maybe the recent Parkinson’s bill?) tensd to rule out PD.
• NYT is fixated on PD, and has been for a week, for no apparent reason.

This all looks so much like a propaganda op. Like Fox News. Or like RT.

Reply
Thomas A Fine
July 8, 2024 at 6:12 pm
P.S. they’re pushing a long-standing right-wing troll rumor that originated with Wohl and Burkman.

[shrike3]

11. His neuro exam at Walter Reed ruled out Parkinson's.

They have to know this.

[sheshe2]

15. They do.

However, they are MAGA and truth telling is not part of their DNA. Lies travel faster than the truth.

[lapucelle]

23. Thanks for posting that. I never thought to read the comments.

Peter Baker reminds me of a snitchy, gossipy middle school school kid.

[sheshe2]

29. OMG you described and pictured him perfectly!

🤪

[Attilatheblond]

32. And he hasn't been invited to be on the TV as often as he used to be

His sniveling doesn't sell soap, eveidently

[dchill]

35. Nailed on the head!

[shrike3]

13. More and more, journalist is a synonym for lazy.

It's even worse than when I was in the biz.

[Attilatheblond]

33. Many seemed to like it when Trump did their work for them

Evidently, they didn't notice many that Trump had serious mental pathologies and had to be the only voice and that they had been demoted to stenographers, or they were fine with all the extra time they had.

[BootinUp]

16. Innuendo is not news. Nt

[shrike3]

17. What happened to the dementia angle?

That losing gas, so now they've got to chase a Parkinson's angle?

[Attilatheblond]

34. What's next? Biden is an ice cream addict?

He is too tall and dashing? He is a good father and real presidents are supposed to be bad fathers?

[valleyrogue]

20. Peter Baker is a smear artist

going clear back to his days at the Washington Post attacking Bill Clinton when Clinton was president.

He is disreputable.

[shrike3]

25. Why am I not surprised?

This crap is starting to remind me more and more of the day to day Clinton went through.

[ms liberty]

26. My MiL was diagnosed with Parkinson's like symptoms as part of her dementia

At first they thought it was just Parkinson's, before the dementia became obvious. Her gait was very distinctive, once her neurologist showed me what he was observing. I don't see any of the markers he noted in Joe's gait, which serms more like someone with some arthritis to me.

[lapucelle]

30. It says in the medical report that Biden had broken his foot

and that the change in gait was likely due to the break. That's why his doctor called in the neurologist who specializes in movement disorders.

If Peter Baker had read the actual medical report, he would have seen that..

[ms liberty]

36. Yea, but that would have required actual (gasp) journalism!

[blm]

27. Biden's broken foot in Dec 2020 never healed properly.

Beginning and end of story.

[MustLoveBeagles]

28. This is beyond ridiculous

[dchill]

38. Kick. Recommend.

[Evolve Dammit]

40. It just fucking happens. WE GET OLD. As long as we are mentally with it, who the fuck cares? VP is there.