Media Admits It Need Some ‘Soul-Searching’ Regarding Biden Coverage

There was a rather interesting panel discussion between The New York Times' chief White House correspondent Peter Baker, MSNBC host and Politico White House bureau chief Jonathan Lemire, "PBS NewsHour" correspondent Laura Barrón-López, and The Guardian Washington bureau chief David Smith.

The discussion was about the media coverage of the presidential campaign during the Texas Tribune Festival that took place earlier this month.

They agreed, perhaps they weighted their coverage in favor of Biden to avoid tipping the scales for Trump.

Not How It Works

I think we can all agree our mainstream media is currently nothing more than an arm of the Democrat Party.

If I am being honest, some aspects of reporting have gotten better, but that just means it is now at a 90-10 tilt instead of a 99-1 tilt.

While discussing the clear bias of the reporting, Smith stated, "There was perhaps, even on an unconscious level, the notion that if you focus so much on Joe Biden's age, you are somehow helping Donald Trump."

Barrón-López added, "We weren't relentlessly covering, the way some of my peers were, Biden's age necessarily, even all the way up until the debate.

"It is and was a valid question. Many times when I was on the trail, even before the debate, voters would bring it up.

“Almost every single voter I spoke to would bring it up, even if they were planning to vote for President Biden. Compared to now, I definitely think that Donald Trump's age could be covered more by the press."

Funny… she is admitting they did not cover Biden’s age properly, but now that Biden is out, they want Trump’s age covered more.

Smith responded, "The further you were away from Washington… the clearer you can see the problem.

"What on earth are the Democrats playing at here? The nominee is too old! Why is he the nominee?

"And then the closer you got to Washington, the White House in particular, the more caveats, the more ambiguous it became.

"You had all sorts of people - Democratic insiders and White House officials playing this down… It took a while for Washington to catch up and in a sense the media as well."

Then Smith dropped the bombshell, stating, "There was perhaps, even on an unconscious level, the notion that if you focus so much on Joe Biden's age, you are somehow helping Donald Trump, who is in an entirely different category. He is a threat to democracy.

"And to me, that is another indication of how the Trump era has warped so much around it, you know, the normal scrutiny of a candidate and his [frail] condition by 'Yeah, but on the other side there's Trump.' And Democrats would make that point."

So again, even admitting they were being biased, they cannot help but attack Donald Trump.

Baker then admitted that the media needed to do some “soul-searching” on how they all reported during this campaign.

Baker added, "It's very personal. Anybody who's had a father or mother whose age and you talk to them by taking away their keys, these are not easy issues. That's a sense of what the country is going through with Biden.

"And how do you write something in the appropriate way, balanced and yet tough… We wrote these stories, aired these stories repeatedly over the last couple years. The editors, our writers got massive complaints from the White House about it.”

That last line was the killer for me, all but admitting that they caved to pressure from the White House, something the media should NEVER do.

Their job is to report the news, not take sides, but they have failed on all fronts.

They worked overtime to help the Democrats win the White House in 2020, and the fact they are overlooking how Harris was nominated in this election is proof that as a whole, our media has not changed.

Until they do, we will continue to have state-run media in this country.