Are mainstream media outlets starting to turn on President Joe Biden?

I don’t know if media outlets are ‘turning’ on Biden. But the media does seem to be covering Biden from a more neutral, unbiased perspective – which has manifested itself in more frequently critical coverage, and a notable shift from the early days of the Biden administration.

The Trump to Joe Biden Transition

When President Trump was in office he consistently expressed his displeasure with the media, saying that the media was against him. Trump came across as sounding petulant and thin skinned. But Trump’s displeasure was rational; the press was openly hostile towards Trump – which was occasionally appropriate, but just as often was not.

Seemingly, during the Trump years, the media abandoned any sense of neutrality. Trump was held, in the eyes of CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, et al. l., categorically, as the bad guy, public enemy number one, incapable of doing anything right. The bias was especially obvious when Trump was replaced and the media shifted a large chunk of its focus to his successor, Joe Biden. Unlike Trump, Biden got the benefit of the doubt.

Even when Biden’s policies bore a resemblance to Trump’s, Biden got some leeway where Trump had once been skewered. Consider immigration, for example. The mainstream media spoke of Trump’s immigration policies as proof positive that Trump was a Goebbels-like, draconian xenophobe. Yet when Biden kept some of Trump’s immigration policies intact, Title 42 and the border wall, for example, the media mostly accepted the policies as cases where a president had to make difficult choices for the betterment of the country.

The COVID pandemic offered another insight into media inconsistencies between Trump's and Biden's coverage. The media was vicious in its coverage of Trump and his government’s response to the first several months of the pandemic. Biden even built his 2020 campaign message on perceived weaknesses, weaknesses that the media amplified in Trump’s COVID response.

But when Biden took office, and the government’s response mostly stayed the Trump course (while taking credit for vaccine rollouts that were developed under Trump’s Operation Warp Speed). Again, the media gave Biden the benefit of the doubt.

Understanding The Media Response

The disparate media treatment, between two presidents, is not some conspiracy theory. It’s the manifestation of a heavy liberal bias within the field of journalism. The truth is, that in the post-Watergate world, journalism has become a prestige profession, populated with liberal people from well-to-do families, with degrees from just a handful of schools: NYU, Brown, Princeton, Northwestern, Columbia, Yale, etc. Liberal schools.

And in the schools and communities that breed journalists, Trump is public enemy number one – which is fine – but when that bias dilutes and distorts the coverage of a nation’s presidency, that becomes a problem.

Yet, after years of biased reporting, something seems to be clicking into place. The media does seem to be offering fairer, more critical coverage of the Biden administration.

‘Democrats Might Need a Plan B,” POLITICO suggested earlier today.  

‘Joe Biden faces age, mental acuity concerns,” CNN admitted.  

‘Eight Words and a Verbal Slip Put Biden’s Age Back at the Center of 2024,” The New York Times reported.

Now, don’t expect the mainstream media to ever embrace Donald Trump. But if the media can get to a place where Biden is assessed from a neutral standpoint, that would offer an improvement in media coverage over one of our most important public institutions.

About the Author: Harrison Kass

Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.  

Image Credit: Gage Skidmore.