LyftLady11

Long rant @ddiamond but stay with me. Journalists counter my criticism all the time by saying "but we did write 1 or 2 articles on that!" That's great, but the issue is what achieves agenda-setting salience. Biden's health was regular front page news for months. His footwear choices generated headlines. He tripped once on stage and it generated a week of commentary. If he flubbed the name of a foreign leader, it was covered in multiple outlets even if he corrected himself. @peterbakernyt @nytimes ran a high profile story implying he was hiding Parkinsons that turned out to be false. After he left office, @jaketapper went on a book tour to continue to criticize Biden's age and fitness. You will not convince me Trump receives this level of scrutiny, because he simply doesn't in any study of actual headlines I've seen (Media Matters did a great one.) In fact, Trump has appeared to fall asleep about 19 times in public in his current term (most recently at a 9/11 memorial event which generated no major headlines outside liberal outlets). I counted them myself mostly using social media clips from accounts like @atrupar and asking AI to debunk the fake ones, which I was forced to do because the only journalist at a major outlet that I could find who tried to compile that kind of list is @khaleda who does not even work in the US! (By the way, Dan, I'm more than happy to send you that list via email.) The media never pursued sustained follow-up on Trump's hand bruising, his gait, his multi-day Walter Reed visits, the obvious falsehoods in his health reports, or the true nature of Natalie Harp's role as his aide. When he is incoherent in remarks, WH press so regularly sanitize his speech it has its own name ("sanewashing"). Scrutiny of Trump's health is so sparse there was a multi-day period in which social media was full of rumors that he had died. There are viral social media accounts alleging serious health complications that at minimum suggest continuous fact-based reporting that is seriously lacking. I could write the same rant about a number of other high profile issue: why is it not treated as sustained scandal news that Don Jr's wedding was paid by the Russians Why is it not treated as scandal that Jared Kushner has a role in govt at all? Hunter Biden's laptop and paintings were months-longs stories. Why aren't we seeing journalists post pictures of their receipts or gas station prices like we saw during inflation coverage under Biden? When do we get an update on @brikeilarcnn's milk guzzling family from 2021? My opinion is that the media is stuck over-covering itself (press access or DC-specific stories like the Reflecting Pool) instead of hammering the issues that put Trump into office that actually don't require White House press access. I don't know whether this is disinterest, corporate pressure, or appeasing GOP sources, but often it feels that way.