On June 21, the New York Times criticized videos featuring Joe Biden's aging. "How misleading videos are trailing Biden as he battles age doubts," headlined the New York daily, rightly denouncing "a flurry of recent clips, many of them edited or lacking context." That was before June 27, the day of Biden's calamitous debate with Donald Trump, which highlighted the weaknesses of the incumbent president. On July 2, with the zeal of those who have long denied it, the outlet investigated. "Biden's lapses are said to be increasingly common and worrisome," read the headline of a new article.
Many Americans are furious, feeling that they have been deceived by the White House and the media. Billionaire Bill Ackman, followed by 1.3 million accounts on Twitter, went in for the kill and accused the media of complacency: "@60Minutes [a program on CBS] knew; The @nytimes knew. @CNN knew. @MSNBC knew. Left-wing media have had total and complete access to the president, his staff and his administration. They all knew, but they told you otherwise. They outright lied to you." "NYTimes has some explaining to do. Complete reversal of a major story in a little over a week," tweeted an equally annoyed Alex Tabarrok, a professor of economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
Specifically, the media are accused of not investigating for political reasons, a criticism levied by former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson. "Shame on the White House press corps for not to have pierced the veil of secrecy surrounding the president (...) I worry that too many journalists didn’t try to get the story because they did not want to be accused of helping elect Donald Trump. I get that. But this is no excuse for abandoning our first duty, which is to report the truth and hold power accountable," condemned Abramson on Semafor, nevertheless conceding that it was a difficult situation.
Only the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a lengthy investigation on June 4: "Behind closed doors, Biden shows signs of slipping," accused the business daily, pointing out that the White House viewed such criticism as "partisan politics." The investigation did quote mainly Republican sources, which enabled the Democrats to denounce it as a loaded article.
"Many of us spent time with @WSJ to share on the record our first-hand experiences with @POTUS, where we see his wisdom, experience, strength and strategic thinking," slammed Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House of Representatives, on June 5. "Instead, the Journal ignored testimony by Democrats, focused on attacks by Republicans and printed a hit piece." A few days after the calamitous CNN debate, Pelosi felt it was "legitimate" to ask questions about Biden's mental fitness.
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