I will say that Perry Bacon had it right in diagnosis, but wrong in prescription. All that’s needed is neutral coverage. E.g. Afghanistan - Biden was faced with a mess because the Government ran off before Intel thought they would. He was far from flawless - the drone strike and the left behind translators were both horrible, but the …
I will say that Perry Bacon had it right in diagnosis, but wrong in prescription. All that’s needed is neutral coverage. E.g. Afghanistan - Biden was faced with a mess because the Government ran off before Intel thought they would. He was far from flawless - the drone strike and the left behind translators were both horrible, but the suicide bombing was to be expected once the government fell and the exodus became improvised - but the breathless coverage and reflexive buy in to negative talking points (including by you, Charlie) was overdone and unwarranted. And inflation - the press’s handling is disgraceful. The whole media establishment seems to have turned into a bunch of tabloid reporters - can’t print or say “gas prices” without adding “soaring”, and can’t tell the complex story of this inflation - more like 1946-48 than 1973-82 - because it doesn’t fit into their narrative. The press’s poor performance disgusts me, starting with The NY Times and the gotcha-chasing lemmings that are the current White House press corps.
That being said, Biden has made plenty of messaging mistakes, starting with his Fourth of July Covid pronouncements last year (“mission accomplished” redux) and continuing through inflation today. But if he got the neutral coverage that a president acting in good faith should receive, and if the press were doing its job of trying to educate the population and not choosing stories to advance its narrative and/or focusing on an election horse race that is TWO F***ING YEARS AWAY BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT COMPETENT TO COVER SUBSTANCE, we’d be in a much better position as a country today.
Btw - despite some occasional pieces or perspectives that I perceive as unfair, I think that the Bulwark folks have done an overall good and fair job in their Biden coverage, and what I perceive as lapses or unfair slants never strike me as products of bad faith - which is why I am devoted to reading them.
This is a very good post. Bulwark is great as frank said however I’m pretty sure I remember Charlie, Mona, and especially sarah all saying last year after the shots had gone out saying he needs to give a “mission accomplished” moment. No one could have predicted delta but let’s be honest we all wanted it over, wished it would be over, and when it turned out to be wrong, we blamed Biden.
I will say that Perry Bacon had it right in diagnosis, but wrong in prescription. All that’s needed is neutral coverage. E.g. Afghanistan - Biden was faced with a mess because the Government ran off before Intel thought they would. He was far from flawless - the drone strike and the left behind translators were both horrible, but the suicide bombing was to be expected once the government fell and the exodus became improvised - but the breathless coverage and reflexive buy in to negative talking points (including by you, Charlie) was overdone and unwarranted. And inflation - the press’s handling is disgraceful. The whole media establishment seems to have turned into a bunch of tabloid reporters - can’t print or say “gas prices” without adding “soaring”, and can’t tell the complex story of this inflation - more like 1946-48 than 1973-82 - because it doesn’t fit into their narrative. The press’s poor performance disgusts me, starting with The NY Times and the gotcha-chasing lemmings that are the current White House press corps.
That being said, Biden has made plenty of messaging mistakes, starting with his Fourth of July Covid pronouncements last year (“mission accomplished” redux) and continuing through inflation today. But if he got the neutral coverage that a president acting in good faith should receive, and if the press were doing its job of trying to educate the population and not choosing stories to advance its narrative and/or focusing on an election horse race that is TWO F***ING YEARS AWAY BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT COMPETENT TO COVER SUBSTANCE, we’d be in a much better position as a country today.
Btw - despite some occasional pieces or perspectives that I perceive as unfair, I think that the Bulwark folks have done an overall good and fair job in their Biden coverage, and what I perceive as lapses or unfair slants never strike me as products of bad faith - which is why I am devoted to reading them.
This is a very good post. Bulwark is great as frank said however I’m pretty sure I remember Charlie, Mona, and especially sarah all saying last year after the shots had gone out saying he needs to give a “mission accomplished” moment. No one could have predicted delta but let’s be honest we all wanted it over, wished it would be over, and when it turned out to be wrong, we blamed Biden.