Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias!
How do these people look at themselves in the mirror without retching?
Paul Farhi was the veteran Democratic operative (aka a MSM reporter) the Post assigned to spin this scandal. “President Biden was photographed holding a notecard Wednesday, revealing the stage managing behind many political media events,” he began. Oh, the euphemism is “stagemanaging,” is it? What the “notecard” was is called a cheat sheet, and what it signifies is cheating, and lying to the public.
The card in Biden’s hand—he’s so diminished mentally that he can’t even cheat competently–read “Question # 1,” and directed the President to call on Los Angeles Times reporter, Courtney Subramanian. The card included Subramanian’s name, a pronunciation guide, her affiliation and a headshot. The card also included Subramanian’s question: under the heading “Foreign Policy/Semiconductor Manufacturing,” the card read, “How are YOU squaring YOUR domestic priorities — like reshoring semiconductors manufacturing — with alliance-based foreign policy?”
Biden called on her for the first question, she asked what she was supposed to, and Biden offered an uncharacteristically detailed and coherent response. Farhi’s spin: “White House press office employees have routinely polled reporters about their priorities and interests in advance of news meetings to anticipate what their boss might be asked while on the podium. The practice is also common in news conferences with Cabinet secretaries, such as the secretary of defense and secretary of state.” Fine, that’s their job. And it is an ethical reporter’s job to say, “Sorry, you’re just going to have to find out when I’m called on.” Sure Presidential aides want to brief POTUS on what the likely topics are. Rigging the questions in advance, however, is something completely different. It’s called cheating. This is particularly true in this case, when much of the pubic is concerned about the President’s cognitive abilities. Presenting him as able to whip off a detailed answer to a reporter’s question when in fact he was tipped off and the reporter was in cahoots with the White House is pure deception.
As the Post spun the facts, the participants evaded the issue or lied outright. Subramanian wouldn’t comment. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Times, said Subramanian didn’t provide White House officials with a specific or even general question in advance of the news conference. Really? What a coinkydink, then, that Biden had a cheat sheet with a detailed question on it under the Times’ reporter’s photo, and she duly asked that exact question! For her part, the President’s incompetent (but historic!) paid liar,Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the next day that Biden hadn’t received the question from Subramanian before the news conference. It’s a miracle! Or does the Amazing Kreskin work for Joe?
After Farhi exhausts his spin options (“As a rule, however, reporters say their pre-news-conference responses to these inquiries don’t preclude them from changing the subject and asking anything they want”…no, but since most reporters are in the bag for the Democrats and have no integrity, they don’t change the subject. Subramanian didn’t), he stoops to “Republican pounce”:
[T]he Republican National Committee’s research arm aimed to capitalize on the optics of Wednesday’s episode. Over a photo of Biden and the notecard, the organization tweeted: “Biden used a cheat sheet at today’s press conference — with a reporter’s question written on it.”
Is that really good enough for Biden supporters and progressive ideologues? Wow.
Incredible as it seem, the Post readers who commented on the article were even outrageous in their desperate rationalizing than Farhi. Many faulted the Post for not being supportive enough of Biden. Most responses were like these:
- “Better to have a president with a document that helps him to give the right answers, than a president telling everybody to drink Lysol to fight Covid.”
- “Do you seriously expect a president, any president, to have extensive, detailed, facts about absolutely everything in the Federal government at his fingertips, ready to answer random questions?”
- “Republicans are of course pouncing on this. There is nothing wrong with them getting approved questions in advance and the author even says that it happens all the time. The admin needs to know what the questions will be so they have good answers. They’re just mad that the guy answering is not Drumpf!”
- “So, let’s talk about the number of times Trump walked away rather than respond to a question from a journalist. Let’s talk about all the softball questions Trump got in interviews with Sean Hannity. And let’s talk about public health officials wincing or covering their faces while Trump mused on the use of bleach to fight covid. The only time Trump doesn’t run his mouth aimlessly is in depositions. The worst Biden is guilty of is gaffes. He doesn’t have to take the Fifth like his predecessor.”
- “Biden is a great president. He thinks ahead and is organized for the future as well as the instant. Americans may be proud of his intellect and capability.’
- “Cheating? You don’t think it’s good to prepare so the fullest, most accurate answer can be given? Being president is not a game of gotcha.”
These are corrupt, intellectually dishonest, ethically inert citizens. I hear Geena knocking….
Ethics Alarms 
Okay, call me crazy, but I think those WaPo “commenters” are paid operatives. Do we really think those comments just happen to randomly appear and they get allowed onto their website? No. I bet The Post has an entire roomful of kids cranking out that stuff from talking point memos. As Charles Barkley would say, “I may be wrong, but I doubt it.”
Joe Biden. Our first living animatronic president. Good work, Disney.
I wouldn’t attribute to paid operatives actions that people are perfectly willing to perform for free.
Oh, this is normal procedure, is it? So the Los Angeles Times provided Trump with its questions ahead of time, did it?
I wish I could say this was something new, but it isn’t. It’s just the logical progression of behavior from when they tried to provide Hillary with the debate questions in advance in 2016. The mainstream media has their heads so far up Biden’s ass that he can’t shit because the stool is so compressed.
Yes, “everybody does it” and “Republicans pounce” are good enough for the Washington Post’s readers. These are the same readers who won’t accept the same excuse from any other party and wouldn’t dream of pouncing, because Democrats don’t pounce they just point out where the other side went wrong.
Most of them long ago learned to breathe Democrat poo. 💩
” A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Times, said Subramanian didn’t provide White House officials with a specific or even general question in advance of the news conference. ”
And maybe they didn’t. Maybe the White House supplied the Times with the question which is why it was so precisely provided on Biden’s Stage Directions.
That was my thought exactly. They never denied that the White House provided the questions.
Lying by omission.
How else to explain that the White House knew the questions that would be asked?
-Jut
“A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Times, said Subramanian didn’t provide”
is different than
“Subramanian speaking for the Los Angeles Times, said the Los Angeles Times didn’t provide”
To pull this stunt right after the President announced he was running again in 2024 is pretty arrogant on the part of the Administration. They know the President can’t hide his cognitive decline and frankly, Democrats don’t care. They never have cared. President Biden is going to be branded as another Senator Fetterman – “a C-I-C who overcomes debilitating mental issues to lead this nation in Building Back Better.” How quickly we have lost track of the myriad of times the other side wanted to use the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office…because he was caustic, loud-mouthed, self-absorbed, and mean-spirited. All of those are bad, but none indicate the clear and obvious mental decline that we’ve seen from President Biden. He is now almost completely unable to leave the script.
And you know the real tragedy? We’re being set up for another four years of 4M (the Mobile Mannequin with the Moving Mouth). President Trump is once again playing the frat-boy-insult game with anyone running as a Republican. He is single-handedly splintering the Republican Party. If he gains the nomination, many more Republicans than in 2020 will refuse to vote for him, making a second Biden term much more likely. If President Trump fails to gain the nomination, he will likely run as a third-party candidate – guaranteeing a second Biden term.
Donald Trump needs to realize that – good or bad, fairly or unfairly – he has become the “Hillary Clinton” of the Republican Party. He is loathed by Democrats as much as – maybe more than – Ms. Clinton is by Republicans. It’s time to get out and give the waters a chance to calm down a bit. Throwing his support behind another candidate and working to build a coalition of support could be a tremendous asset and give the GOP a much stronger position in 2024.
But President Trump appears to be an extreme narcissist. He always feels he must have the last word and is completely unable to “turn the other cheek” and walk away. And many of his supporters follow him more than they follow traditional Republican principals – small government, small budgets (remember that thing?), power to the people and to the states. That’s a dangerous thing.
And tragically, most of them will follow President Trump straight to four more years of President Biden.
Sorry, this was supposed to be about President Biden and the unethical queue cards. But we are threatened with witnessing President Biden’s accelerating decline from the Oval Office for another four years, courtesy of President Trump.
Jack,
I’m sorry to bother, but I tried twice to post a response without success, so if you could rescue one of them…? Thanks so much in advance!!
Got it. WP spammed you: I’m sorry.
I’m not sure why it’s considered “getting caught.” The last 15 or so years—i.e. since the Dem Messiah (Obama) became president—the MSM has dropped any pretense of objectivity and professionalism, and have exposed themselves as nothing more than Dem propaganda apparatus, and you know what, large number of American voters (enough to allow creating a presumed majority when am you add enough votes via all the “measures” they’ve been implementing to shore up our “democracy”) are still voting for the Dems. So why should they (Dems and MSM) give a crap?!
I’m not sure why it’s considered “getting caught.” The last 15 or so years—i.e. since the Dem Messiah (Obama) became president—the MSM has dropped any pretense of objectivity and professionalism, and have exposed themselves as nothing more than Dem propaganda apparatus, and you know what, large number of American voters (enough to allow creating a presumed majority when am you add enough votes via all the “measures” they’ve been implementing to shore up our “democracy”) are still voting for the Dems. So why should they (Dems and MSM) give a crap?!