Democrats see media bias against Biden ahead of impeachment inquiry and election

From formal memorandums to snippy emails, Democrats are becoming increasingly assertive with the news media to defend President Joe Biden before next year’s election.

But Democrats dismiss comparisons between them and Republicans, namely former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP primary front-runner, who they condemned for criticizing specific reporters and the media writ large.

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Considering “ample proof points” that the news media are repeating mistakes, “no amount of accountability would be sufficient,” according to former White House spokesman Eric Schultz.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher, even as reporters cling to neutrality in a contest between democracy and autocracy,” Schultz, a former President Barack Obama aide, told the Washington Examiner.

But Republican strategist and On Message, Inc. co-founder Brad Todd recalled Democratic uproar in response to, for example, Trump’s description of members of the press as the “enemy of the people.”

“I’m old enough to remember when Democrats said Republican critics of the media were a danger to democracy,” he said.

Democratic criticism of the news media is not as consistent as that of Republicans, per political and media historian Brian Rosenwald, partly because there are fewer liberal-leaning outlets with “a financial incentive to drive mistrust” and “their voters don’t expect it to the same degree.”

“There are plenty of Democrats who think Trump won in the first place because the [news media] gave him disproportionate amounts of airtime in 2016, and aired his rallies full of lies live, while also focusing relentlessly on Hillary’s emails,” he said. “They are worried about a repeat in 2024.

Other Democratic criticisms include the news media being preoccupied with Biden’s age and mistakes, in addition to “negative things about the economy,” particularly inflation, Rosenwald, a University of Pennsylvania scholar and author of Talk Radio’s America: How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States, added.

But for Rutgers University history, journalism, and media studies professor David Greenberg, the news media are “almost never” to blame “for a politician’s woes.”

“The White House and the [Democratic National Committee] would be better off circulating clips of Biden’s speech to the U.N., or lots of other times where he is obviously perfectly normal and capable, rather than complaining about media coverage,” he said. “It’s close to impossible to argue that Biden gets worse press than Trump.”

The White House’s more assertive communications strategy is best underscored by the Office of General Counsel as it and House Republicans prepare for the first impeachment inquiry hearing into Biden and his family’s business dealings next week.

The White House Counsel’s Office last week disseminated a memo titled “It’s Time For The Media To Do More To Scrutinize House Republicans’s Demonstrably False Claims That They’re Basing Impeachment Stunt On.”

“Covering impeachment as a process story — Republicans say X, but the White House says Y — is a disservice to the American public who relies on the independent press to hold those in power accountable,” spokesman Ian Sams wrote. “In the modern media environment, where every day liars and hucksters peddle disinformation and lies everywhere from Facebook to Fox [News], process stories that fail to unpack the illegitimacy of the claims on which House Republicans are basing all their actions only serve to generate confusion, put false premises in people’s feeds, and obscure the truth.”

The DNC has adopted a similar strategy, amplifying an MSNBC segment this week in which anchor Ayman Mohyeldin awarded his “Worst of the Week” to news media that had concentrated on Biden’s age “while ignoring Trump’s — especially after the ex-president’s gaffe-filled week.”

The strategy coincides with escalating Democratic anxiety about Biden’s prospects next year as Trump dominates the 2024 Republican primary. Trump averages 59% support among GOP voters nationwide, according to RealClearPolitics, though he has less than a percentage point’s edge on Biden in hypothetical head-to-head polling, 45.1% to 44.6%.

“I don’t believe America is a dark, negative nation, a nation of carnage, driven by anger and fear and revenge,” Biden said this week during a fundraiser in New York City. “But my predecessor does, and he may be the nominee again. It looks like he is destined to be the nominee again.”

“Surprised they haven’t asked me about the auto strike,” Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day of the news media. “They usually ask about things that have nothing to do with what we’re talking about.”

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For the fourth time this week, a White House spokesman, this time Michael Kikukawa, emphasized in an email that Biden was “delivering for the American people” on one side of the political “split screen.” On the other, “extreme” Congressional Republicans, whose “priorities are a reckless, partisan laundry list beholden to the far-right ideologues in their caucus.”

“President Biden will continue to rally the world to stand with the people of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brazen and brutal invasion,” Kikukawa said. “House Republicans are marching toward a shutdown with a bill that makes extreme cuts to food safety, law enforcement, childcare, and more while refusing to join their colleagues in supporting additional aid for disaster relief or Ukraine.”