Reporters blame "right-wing media" for failing to report Biden's infirmity - NaturalNews.com

Reporters blame “right-wing media” for failing to disclose Biden’s infirmity.

After President Joe Biden made an unexpected and shocking appearance during the Presidential Debate, public outrage directed towards the media was understandably intense. According to CNN’s reporting at the White House reporters were extremely regretful but pointed to “right-wing media” as being responsible for their avoidance. CNN stated this admission indicated how reporters instead chose not to cover a story because it might frame it differently for political gain – exactly the pattern I discuss in my new book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage where journalism now abandoned objectiveness and impartiality as core values within journalism itself.
(Article Republished from JonathanTurley.org) For years now, questions regarding President Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline have raged on, culminating in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report released this past summer. Once he had confirmed Biden had unlawfully retained and mishandled classified material over decades, he concluded prosecution would likely prove difficult because juries might be dissuaded from charging an elderly individual with failing memory. Media members descended heavily upon Hur, while attesting to her intelligence and abilities as President. As video footage began surfacing that showed President Trump confused and frail, mainstream media dismissed them as cheap fakes; Fox News in particular was widely condemned for showing them, even though Fox noted they were unedited (full disclosure: I work at Fox). (For my part, I am an analyst for Fox). Virtually every news outlet broadcast the attack with politicians, pundits and celebrities agreeing that President Barack Obama was sharp and engaging. On MSNBC Joe Scarborough told viewers “start recording right now because I’m about to tell the truth – and f– you if it hurts. This version of Biden intellectually and analytically is by far his finest performance ever; not close second at all – in my years knowing him…if this weren’t accurate information I wouldn’t say so…”
At first, however, many thought the presidential debates would provide protection for Trump against public scrutiny – after years of having his staff support and guide his choices and protect his image – however millions witnessed him struggling to remain focused and responsive during these intense interrogation sessions. As journalists attempted to explain away recent belated disclosure, one reason often given was “right-wing press” narratives which necessitated countering them. CNN notes that reporters “are now expressing regret.” According to them, some members of the White House press corps who regularly interact with President Biden now recognize they were discouraged from reporting his mental decline before last week’s debate due to attention it gained from “right-wing media.” As part of their responsibility to shape news coverage, Leonard Downie Jr. of Washington Post Executive Editor fame and Andrew Heyward (former CBS News President) conducted extensive interviews with more than 75 media leaders to confirm this shift in journalistic priorities. Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, Editor-in-Chief of the San Francisco Chronicle stated: “Objectivity needs to go. Unfortunately, how objective you appear depends heavily upon which ideology is at work.” Recently we’ve discussed the rise of advocacy journalism and rejection of objectivity by journalism schools. Writers, editors, commentators and academics alike have become advocates of speech controls such as President-elect Joe Biden’s key advisers have supported such proposals for speech censorship or restrictions on free expression. Academics who oppose objectivity in journalism prefer open advocacy as their preferred approach. Ted Glasser, professor at Stanford’s journalism program and author of several works including “Journalism Without Obligation: An Empirical Exploration of Sociopolitical Reality and Its Transformation into Knowledge for Better World Citizens”, recently stressed to The Stanford Daily that journalism must move away from objective reporting towards social justice journalism. He disproved of the perception of journalism being objective. According to him, journalists should view themselves more as activists rather than objective reporters – because morality lies at the center of good writing and good history writing alike. Journalists need to advocate openly and frankly for social justice; but doing so within the confines of objectivity may prove challenging.” Lauren Wolfe, who was fired as freelance editor from The New York Times due to her pro-Biden tweet, has not only publicly defended it but has published an essay entitled: ‘I Admit Being Biased As a Journalist.” Nikole Hannah-Jones, former New York Times writer and now Howard University Journalism Professor, is one of the foremost advocates of advocacy journalism. In fact, Hannah-Jones firmly asserts: ‘All journalism is activism! Problematic moments arise when public opinion realizes that prior coverage was inaccurate. No matter if it be Russian collusion (for which reporters won Pulitzer Prizes) or Hunter Biden’s laptop computer or the Lafayette Park photo shoot or even migrant whipping controversy – an inherent pattern exists of concealment or misdirection. Media outlets are crumbling as more people seek alternative sources for news and information, like my previous piece which highlighted how “Let’s Go Brandon!” became an unofficial rallying cry against both President Biden and media organizations alike. On Oct 2, race-car driver Brandon Brown held his inaugural NASCAR Xfinity Series race and during an interview conducted by NBC reporter Kelli Stavast was interrupted by loud chants of ‘F*** Joe Biden.” Stavast inexplicably stated, “You can hear chants from the crowd: ‘Let’s Go Brandon!'”, therefore justifying themselves when confronted by guilt for failing to pursue President’s mental and physical decline by explaining they’re only doing their jobs according to what has been taught them at J Schools. They had long served to counter conservative viewpoints while framing news coverage for liberal audiences, so Washington Post Publisher and CEO William Lewis has come under criticism for dropping an unexpected truth bomb when telling his staff of this need for change: “Let’s face facts, this thing needs changing; large sums of money have been lost over recent years; your audience has fallen by half; people no longer read your stuff… so no sugarcoating it anymore… so sorry but we just can’t sugarcoat this anymore”.
Staff has now started an effort to have Jon Turnery fired; for more details visit JonathanTurley.org