In today’s 24-7 media coverage of current events in the political world, stories are regularly introduced as “breaking news with more details to follow.”
That will most certainly be the case after the recent release of the book “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” coauthored by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson.
Not surprisingly, in today’s deeply divided society, the reaction to the book has been mixed.
Some have said elected officials, and their staff lie regularly. They say it is and always has been the way of the world in which we live.
It has also been said that the public should not be surprised or upset when details emerge on behavior by elected and appointed government that is illegal or unethical.
Others have said illegal and unethical behavior is never acceptable.
They say the media has an obligation to report it, and those who engage in such behavior must be held accountable and punished to the maximum extent of the law.
Some have said, while such behavior is bipartisan, more often than not, it is overlooked or excused by some of the national media when it involves Democratic Presidents.
They cite the levels of reporting by the national media on Bill Clinton’s involvement with Monica Lewinsky, compared to Richard Nixon’s involvement with Watergate.
Until recently, Nixon has been almost universally viewed as the least ethical and least honest president in U.S. history.
John Kass, a former Chicago Tribune political reporter and columnist has challenged that view by writing “…this one about Biden is much worse than the Watergate break-in. In that one the White House covered up the lawbreaking and the media uncovered it.”
Even Jake Tapper has suggested that may be true in saying publicly, the “cover-up of the former president’s mental decline may be a worse scandal than Watergate.”
With that in mind, Congressional investigations are already underway on Biden’s levels of awareness of and involvement on decisions made during his presidency.
More are likely to come.
It will be most interesting to learn answers given under oath to three questions:
Was there at any point during the Biden presidency, when, as a result of Biden’s physical and mental health condition, decisions that are the exclusive responsibility of an elected president were instead made by an individual or individuals other than the elected President?
If so and perhaps without President Biden being aware of it, did these individuals break the law, e.g., by using autopen signatures on executive orders and pardons?
Was the media complicit if they ignored or did not follow-up with due diligence on these matters?
Other questions will not be answered until next year’s midterm elections.
How many decisions were made by voters based on their support for or opposition to President Trump’s agenda?
How many decisions were made on whether or not there was conclusive evidence of a coverup of President Biden’s levels of engagement during all four years of his presidency?
Will the latter reflect an increasing loss of voter confidence in national news media outlets?
There are already signs of significant loss of confidence in some of the national media.
Tapper’s own CNN show had its lowest-rated month since August 2015. That should put every member of the news division of the national media on notice.
There are measurable and profound consequences on ignoring and disrespecting what Americans expect from national political news providers.
Going forward, American voters deserve three things from the national media.
Fact-based news with no hidden agendas.
Vigorous pursuit and continuous exposure of verifiable unethical and/or illegal behavior by every elected and appointed government official.
No group think — a psychological phenomenon when conclusions are not the result of a lack of information, but because of a conscious decision to put conformity above critical thinking.
Until that happens, all the excuses and explanations from the national media who failed to do their job during the Biden presidential years will be nothing more than too little, too late.
David Reel is a public affairs and public relations consultant who lives in Easton.
Chris Gordon says
” illegal and unethical behavior is never acceptable”
Shouldn’t we be more concerned about the illegal and unethical behavior by the current administration?
Timothy Sullivan says
I read “Original Sin”. One of the people I found to be responsible for such behavior was The First Lady. She didn’t want to let go of the power. Those people who put out the fake news of our current President, need to read this book. Just maybe their minds will change quickly. The immigration problem lays at the feet of our past president.
Deirdre LaMotte says
If you are going to ignore the Titanic sinking before our eyes and focus instead on the last Captain, can you answer why the current President rarely fills his work schedule he was elected to do, spends most of his time playing golf, at the tune of many hundreds of millions (while destroying needed programs for the hungry in this nation and around the world), openly shows no kindness towards a former POTUS suffering from cancer, and reposts claims that Biden was executed 5 years ago and replaced by clones, his most senior advisor and the man who bought him POTUS is so high on ketamine and adderal that he has severe bladder issues while the GOP was fixated on unelected Hunter Biden going through addiction.
Hmmmm, I wonder who is demented and bat*** crazy.
Under Joe Biden:
12.6 GDP growth, 16 million jobs created (1.6 in construction and manufacturing), lowest average unemployment rate in 50 years,
a record 20 million new business applications, incomes up $4.000 adjusting for inflation, 1 trillion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments that were cancelled under Trump.
The Republican Party has been obliterated by standing behind a psychopath traitor who is in office for two reasons: to avoid jail time for his felonies and enrich his corrupt family.
Bob Moores says
Mr. Reel,
Why single out Biden with your list of hypotheticals which apply to every president in one way or another? Isn’t it the job of the president’s “handlers” to cover for him and make him look good, explain away his miscues by saying “Oh, he really didn’t mean that!” or some other lame-brained excuse – “Oh, Trump was just joking!”
Yes, Biden’s mental decline was covered up. That became shockingly obvious when I watched his debate with Trump. At his age he should not have run for president. But he thought too much of himself, like RBG not knowing when her time was up and retiring from the Supreme Court when it was more opportune for our Democratic Party.
And yes, the liberal press covered for Biden also. They were so focused on winning that they forgot what their main mission was supposed to be, honest, unbiased reporting.
But let’s deal with facts rather than hypotheticals. In Trump’s first term he passed one significant piece of legislation, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which favored the richest Americans by far. In Biden’s four years, he got three important pieces of legislation passed, The American Rescue Plan Act, a response to covid, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, each benefiting all Americans, not just those at the top.
What was Biden’s crime, being old and overestimating his capabilities? Being the father of Hunter Biden? Compare those perceptions to Trump’s actual fines paid for business fraud (e.g. Trump University) two impeachments, one civil conviction, and three other federal indictments pending before his election and tell me who the real criminal is. Talk about false equivalency!
Trump ran for president, as Ms LaMotte noted, to stay out of jail and enrich his corrupt family. He was elected for the same reason most of our presidents have been one-termers, that people always want a change. They feel that they were better off, mostly in economic terms, four years ago. A US president (or political Party) must display exceptional leadership to be elected to a second consecutive term.
Biden may be old, but his values are superior to Trump’s by any measure I hold. Not only has Biden never been convicted of a felony, he has never been indicted for one. He does not display prejudice against people who do not look like us, particularly those invaders from the south. He is not a pathological liar (one who believes his own lies), and is not a fickle, thin-skinned narcissist. He does not claim that our soldiers who have been captured or who have died in battle are “suckers” and “losers”. As a veteran, that alone disqualifies Trump for me. In my 86 years I have never seen any person, much less a president, so character-poor as Donald Trump.
I agree with everything your said in your last two paragraphs except in singling out Biden as a focus for the press’s failure to do their job.