This focus has been apparent to even the most casual of news consumers. Journalist Jennifer Schulze observed that, as of the morning of July 5, the New York Times had published nearly 200 pieces on Biden’s debate performance, comprising 142 news articles and 50 opinion pieces.
In comparison, the historian Heather Cox Richardson wrote that Trump was covered in only 92 stories during that same period.
“Although Trump has frequently slurred his words or trailed off while speaking and repeatedly fell asleep at his own criminal trial,” Richardson pointed out, “none of the pieces mentioned Trump’s mental fitness.”
As the flood of reporting continues on whether or not Biden will or should remain as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, members of the public have been asking a different question: How did all the journalists get on the same page so quickly?
The intensity with which journalists have been reporting on this story and, more importantly, the consistency with which journalists have been framing it, have led some to wonder if the news media as a whole is on a crusade to end Biden’s campaign.
Some think that journalists and newsroom managers are conspiring to bring Biden down as a means to increase the odds of defeating Donald Trump, whom they see as an existential threat to American democracy.
Others think journalists are unfairly focused on Biden’s age out of some warped sense of covering “both sides,” despite the fact that, from their perspective, Trump’s debate performance was filled with “lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering.”
There is a far simpler explanation for why news coverage surrounding Biden’s debate performance looks the way it does. Journalists want to do stories that the public will find valuable and that their audiences will find interesting.
This focus has been apparent to even the most casual of news consumers. Journalist Jennifer Schulze observed that, as of the morning of July 5, the New York Times had published nearly 200 pieces on Biden’s debate performance, comprising 142 news articles and 50 opinion pieces.
In comparison, the historian Heather Cox Richardson wrote that Trump was covered in only 92 stories during that same period.
“Although Trump has frequently slurred his words or trailed off while speaking and repeatedly fell asleep at his own criminal trial,” Richardson pointed out, “none of the pieces mentioned Trump’s mental fitness.”
Posts circulating on social media claim that Michigan has 500,000 more registered voters than it has people eligible to vote, an indication of possible fraud