More Than Increased Ad Revenue Is Behind Media Attacks On Biden

The working assumption is that news outlets want a close Presidential race to increase ratings and therefor ad revenue. That’s true of course but there’s more to it than that. I hope you’ll indulge me in explaining the truly insidious nature of what’s taking place. But we need to start with the obvious stuff we see every day.

Journalism’s “Biden’s in trouble” chorus is growing both in numbers and in volume. Despite being fit, healthy, physically active and displaying more mental acuity that either of the most recent two GOP  Presidents concerns over President Biden’s age are a daily topic in the news. Journalists know, the KNOW that if they were to ask Biden questions on any number of domestic or foreign policy topics after him just completing a bike ride he’d be able to rattle off coherent answers to complex questions. They also know that the fat, orange painted blob Trump is only a few years younger than Biden. AND that he can’t talk all that coherently on the subject most near and dear to him which is his Big Lie about the 2020 election, much less any other topic. Even with lots of preparation and getting softball questions from interviewers doing all they can to prop him up and make him look good.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that even before Trump’s legal troubles heated up the four criminal indictments that is was clear Biden would whip Trump’s butt. Even with inflation running high in the post COVID economic recovery. (Don’t forget that HALF of the high rate was corporate gouging, that actual costs to business due to COVID was four to four and a half percent!) President Biden during his first two years racked up an incredible string of accomplishments, both  in foreign policy and domestically.  I’ll get to all that in a minute, but this is about the news business’ framing of next year’s election.

It’s “Is Biden too old?”, “Is Biden still mentally/physically up to the job?” and similar coverage. Also there’s the stories about Biden’s loss of support with this or that bloc of voters. Younger voters. African Americans. Even stories questioning whether suburban women will come out in the numbers like they have since 2018. It’s a steady drumbeat, punctuated by almost hysterical “the sky is falling on Biden” pieces like this one from USA Today.  In it author Ingrid Jacques does cite some statistics, but also engages in vague, negative commentary such as:

It’s not Biden’s age alone – it’s how he acts. For example, at 77, former President Donald Trump is just a few years younger, but only 47% of voters said Trump’s age was an impediment to running again.

Focus for a minutes on the “it’s how he acts” part. Does she cite “doddering” or “infirm” old man incidents? No. But the insinuation is clearly there. Biden’s a doddering old fart stumbling around, while Trump (who she at least notes is only a few years younger) is insinuated to be vigorous, articulate/well informed and getting around & doing things like a man half his age. If you think about how coverage of President Biden has progressed this year (and the by comparison minimal talk about Trump’s incoherent ramblings, his slow lumbering around especially on uneven surfaces like ramps or stairs etc.) it’s obvious that news outlets have collectively decided to frame things the way we are seeing.

There’s more. Trump made lots of promises to his MAGAs and even regular folks who aren’t card carrying members of MAGA Nation. He didn’t fulfill any of them. From where I sit the only campaign promise he fulfilled was one made in private events to rich folks – another round of “supply side” tax cuts geared towards the already wealthy. THAT promise he made damn sure to get done. Of course he benefited personally from it which is why it mattered enough for him to put in the effort. Now, let’s look at the other side. I said I’d get to President Biden’s accomplishments so let’s look at some of them.

Trump did a lot, a LOT to damage alliances and not just NATO. He gutted the State Department to a degree it might take a generation to rebuild it. At the same time he cozied up to the worst dictators on this planet. When he took office we were the undisputed leader of the free world and while we couldn’t “call every shot” we could call most of them. That’s no longer the case.  Those days are gone. Thanks to President Biden we are again considered the leader of the free world but no longer the undisputed one. That will likely never be the case again. Still, President Biden set to work right away mending fences and as it turned out just in time given Putin’s attempted takeover in Ukraine and China’s relentless attempt to intimidate the Pacific Rim into letting it control every country in it. Unlike the case with Trump, now (as before) when the U.S. President addresses the annual U.N. assembly the other world leaders don’t laugh in our President’s face. Not that you see the news periodically pointing that out, complete with video.

On the domestic front Biden conducted a tour de force legislatively even in the face of a balky (especially in the Senate due to Manchin and Sinema) Democratic majority. Back in January NPR did a write-up of Biden’s first two years and even the headline admitted it was impressive.  It covered the infighting that had gone on and that Biden hadn’t gotten the full measure of his plans passed yet major pieces of legislation had been passed. Some even with bi-partisan support. Yet already the cheap shots were starting because the NPR article then states:

“The problem is that they oversold and underdelivered, even though what they delivered by any normal metric would have been pretty impressive,” NPR political correspondent Mara Liasson said on a recent episode of the NPR Politics Podcast.

The next thing it says (and remember this was back in January) is that all the accomplishments don’t seem to be registering with voters/the public. Gee, I wonder why THAT’S the case? Do you think maybe it’s because instead of steady reporting on all that had been accomplished that instead journalists focused on other things? Including the never ending attempts to ensure they’d have a “horse race” to cover next year? Anyway, let’s take a quick look at all that our President got done.

When he took office President Biden inherited a health crisis greater than this country or the world had seen since the flu pandemic a full century prior. In the U.S., thanks to the combination of Trump’s denial and mismanagement (and grift) something that would have been truly bad was far worse than it could have and should have been. And the one thing good that happened, the approval and mass production of RNA vaccines (which Trump of course took credit for) was actually something that had been set up and developed by President Obama who bluntly questioned why the hell we were still using the old practice of using chicken eggs to mass produce vaccines. Seeing the need for something better and the medical/technological means of a major advancement he pushed for moving into a new way. All Trump did was allow the process to continue and to be fair advocate for emergency FDA approval. But it was President Biden who got control of things both in setting up major testing and vaccination programs. And paying for it all so people could obtain what they needed for free AND get other badly needed assistance via The American Rescue Plan.

Remember how under Trump “Infrastructure Week” became a running national joke? How he was going to have one that would contain “big” “beautiful” proposals yet like his health care plan that would be revealed “soon” never actually happened?  Well, President Biden actually delivered a 1 trillion dollar plan that’s finally kicking in and will be in full swing next year during the election. Trump actually encouraged Republicans to vote against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act but a number of Republicans in both the Senate and the House crossed over and voted for the plan. Not most or even a majority of Republicans but enough to say there was more than token support. Of course, of projects that have already started we’ve seen GOPers who voted AGAINST it standing there at groundbreaking ceremonies claiming credit. (Hypocrisy is a requirement to be a Republican)

If that’s not enough President Biden managed to get the first gun control legislation in decades passed. Mass shooting after mass shooting people in the country wanted something done yet it never happened. But after Uvalde and another mass murder in Buffalo Biden got a significant bill passed. Did it do everything so many of us wanted, including a restoration of the assault weapons ban? No, but it was still a big step in the right direction. And a generation of younger voters who unlike old-farts like me grew up having to practice active shooter drills in schools are now voting.

Crucial computer components have for too long been reliant on foreign manufacturers, especially China. And let’s face it, computers and computer chips are essential products without which so many things we now take for granted would cease to function. So, Biden’s efforts led to the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 to both make us self-reliant again and also create good paying American jobs.

Many economists worried the COVID measures combined with a surge in spending once things re-opened would lead to high inflation and that turned out to be the case. While it’s true there was corporate/business price gouging that doubled the rate but even without that inflation would have risen to four percent or even a bit higher. As I mentioned it was worse due to greed so President Biden got something done on that front too. Not long after taking office President Biden pushed a 2 trillion dollar package he called the Build Back Better Act. It took over a year, and due to inflation wound up being reworked into something smaller which also tackled the inflation problem. It took months of negotiations it but what emerged and was passed was the Inflation Reduction Act. And yes, while stubbornly so inflation has come down substantially.

Now, all that might not be FDR’s “100 Days” but it’s quite the legislative haul, even if it was spread out over more time. No President since FDR has done as much in less than one full term. And, on top of all that President Biden led the world in stopping Russia from swallowing up Ukraine. Had Russia been successful it would have retained outsized influence over energy costs in Europe which in turn would affect world prices. Less noticed but just as important is the outsized control Russia would have over grain supply and therefor food prices worldwide. Not to mention the military threat it would impose to others. Had Putin gotten the quick victory he (and frankly the world) expected Russia would still be feared for being a much greater military power than it’s proven to be.

But Ukraine fought off the initial punch and punched back. And though still in the process of repairing NATO President Biden asserted FDR type leadership and marshalled not just NATO but other free countries to help Ukraine. Putin’s dream of a restored Soviet Union is as dead as he soon (not soon enough) will be. And no would be successor will be able to revive that awful dream thanks to President Biden. At least if he’s given a second term to ensure a new world order is established with Russia not having anywhere near the kind of influence it had under Putin.

THAT my friends is what we have in the WH. I shudder to think how things would be if Trump had won in 2020. Or if he somehow, even as the convicted felon he likely will be by next summer wins again next fall. Yet new outlets INSIST on a narrative of Biden being too old, too physically frail and even losing it mentally while largely giving a pass to Trump who actually IS older than his years, physically a mess and never was a smart as Biden (not even close) and long ago lost whatever intellect he might have once had.

So I’ve taken a while to get to my point that it’s all about more than generating extra ad revenue by a “horse race” next year, a close election (which it shouldn’t be) where Biden barely squeaks by. News outlets know what a disaster another Trump Presidency would be and I honestly think that other than Fox (or the more “out there” variants) want that because Trump would shutter them if they didn’t parrot Fox. And with Fox already in the driver’s seat they’d wind up being shells anyway and the big bosses, and most of the “talent” would be OUT. However, with a badly weakened Biden and a Republican Senate a second Biden administration wouldn’t be able to do what they most fear:

Reverse the mass consolidation of media outlets into a handful of corporate entities. And start regulating social media platforms that serve as news outlets in the same manner as mainstream media. Think I’m kidding about media consolidation? It’s a topic on Wikipedia which has this sobering entry:

An infographic created by Jason at Frugal Dad states that in 1983, 90% of US media was controlled by 50 companies, and that in 2011, 90% was controlled by just 6 companies.^[85] One of the companies listed, News Corporation, was split into two separate companies on June 28, 2013, with publishing assets and Australian media assets going to News Corp and broadcasting and media assets going to 21st Century Fox.^[86]

Make no mistake. Dollar signs are dancing in the heads of those controlling news outlets. But so is fear that a second Biden administration would take steps to break up the media empires that have formed. More outlets means more competition with journalists competing to seek out real news. An awful lot of politicians sure as hell don’t want that. They’d have to do a better job at representing ALL their constituents. Major media doesn’t want it because breaking up the handful of empires will take away their power which at times exceeds what politicians, even Presidents can wield but more importantly reduce the amount of money they make.

So, keep all that in mind as you watch mainstream journalism not only continue, but ramp up their attacks on President Biden while giving Trump a pass on the very things they attack Biden over. Their agenda goes BEYOND increased ad revenue from a close Presidential race.