Will the press hold back on critical coverage of Biden?
‘Media Buzz’ host Howard Kurtz provides analysis on ‘America’s Newsroom.’
While President Trump continues his court fight to keep Joe Biden from being inaugurated as president Jan. 20, news coverage of Biden is already going to the dogs — and cats. Literally. Dogged reporters who howled at every tweet by President Trump are now writing about the incoming pet owner in chief bringing animals to the White House.
The Daily Beast has gone from investigating the White House to … writing about a self-described pet psychic who says she can communicate telepathically with dogs and other animals — including animals who have died.
“Joe Biden’s Dogs Have Told This Pet Psychic a Lot About Their Beloved Master, and His Future” the Beast headlined Saturday. A smaller headline below says: “Pet psychic Beth Lee-Crowther says Joe Biden’s dogs, Major and Champ, told her they are excited to live in the White House. They also say their master will be ‘a great president.’”
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Here’s an actual quote from the Daily Beast story: “The Biden White House has sprung its first leaks. But what can be done when the leakers are the president-elect’s beloved dogs, and they are communicating telepathically with a pet psychic in the English Midlands?”
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The Daily Beast is far from alone. The New York Times published a story about the Biden family’s shelter dog, Major. “President-elect Biden is headed to Washington with Champ and Major, who will be the White House’s first shelter dog,” the Times reported.
And it wasn’t just The Times. News organizations from The Washington Post to Glamour to the broadcast networks to People to NPR joined the pack. Marketwatch(?!) ran this headline, “Major Biden will be the first shelter dog in the White House — and that’s good news for all animals in need of forever homes.”
Oprah Magazine declared: “Americans will finally have dogs back in the White House again.”
It doesn’t stop there. The media proved they can still sniff out a good story. CBS “Sunday Morning” tweeted out the “exclusive” news that came from it Friday night special.
“And now some breaking news on #SundayMorning…” with a video of anchor Jane Pauley noting the Biden pups will soon “be joined by a cat.” Their “Pet Project” was part of a theme of “All the President’s Pets.”
When the media coverage of Biden looks no different than the pet website The Bark (Motto: “dog is my co-pilot”) then journalism is done hounding the White House for bad news.
It’s worth remembering that The Daily Beast is the same leftist rag that insanely claimed, “Report: Russia Has Trump 'Golden Showers' Blackmail” in April of 2017. It also published a story headlined: “Trump Thinks This Is an Insult: Biden ‘Will Listen to the Scientists.’”
I guess journalists weren’t serious about all that science stuff, except when they used it to attack Trump. Now, pet psychics are suddenly legit news.
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News reporting isn’t just downward because of the dogs. Nothing says professional journalism like the breaking news of a cat purchase. At least The Guardian editors gave the litter of kitty stories the best headline: “Dogs and cats living together: Joe Biden says feline will join White House pets.”
They know how to write good headlines. They’re paper trained.
The anti-Trump press corps going from Cujo to Scooby-Doo isn’t an accident. This is a full-on public relations push by the left-wing news media to humanize Biden and make him seem like the anti-Trump. That’s been their theme as they ran his campaign for him.
Journalists were appalled that Trump refused to get a dog. It was one more way for them bite back at Trump.
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The New York Times ran a column by Frank Bruni headlined “Why Donald Trump Hates Your Dog.” Bruni’s bizarre reasoning led him to write: “For Trump, all relationships are transactional and God’s creatures possess value only in accordance with their ability to elevate and enrich him.”
Now that Biden appears to be headed for the White House, the left-wing press is going to make sure he’s never the one in the dog house.