The Real 'Cover-Up': The Media's Failure to Cover Trump's Decaying Mental State
By Robert B. Hubbell Today’s Edition Newsletter
On Tuesday, Penguin Random House published a book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios that claims that Biden family and advisors “covered up” his “decline.”
Let’s put aside for a moment that several of the key figures who allegedly witnessed events described in the book have said publicly, “Not true. It didn’t happen.”
Let's put aside for a moment that Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson were writing a book about an alleged “cover up” when they were actively reporting on Joe Biden’s presidency, but never mentioned the “cover up” that they were allegedly discovering through 200 interviews.
Let’s put aside the implausability of the notion that one could “cover up” the cognitive state of a man who was appearing daily at campaign events, delivering addresses to Congress where he outwitted the entire Republican caucus, providing interviews to major media outlets, and guiding America through a period of stable foreign relations and successful domestic policy.
If it was a “cover-up,” it didn’t prevent major media outlets from reporting daily on Joe Biden’s age, stutter, stiff gait, and alleged gaffes.
The entire nation observed Joe Biden daily with full knowledge of massive coverage concerning his cognitive skills, coverage that was spurred by Trump's daily slurs and taunts about Biden’s alleged cognitive decline.
So, was there a “cover-up?
Yes, I am forced to admit it. There was a cover-up: Donald Trump was, and is, cognitively impaired. And that fact is being covered up by the media every single day.
Asymmetrical media warfare. We all know it. The press knows it. His advisors know it. But the media gives a fraction of the coverage to Trump's much more serious manifestations of cognitive decline than to the anonymous reporting in Jake Tapper’s sensationalized book.
I will not waste my time talking about Tapper’s book any further. I don’t care if you believe what he has written or not. So, please don’t send me emails (as a reader did today), attempting to re-litigate the question of whether there was more going on with Joe Biden’s cognitive state than hundreds of millions of Americans could monitor for themselves daily via intense news coverage.
What I do want to discuss is the amount of coverage that the media is giving today to Jake Tapper’s claims about a former president who guided our nation through one of the most successful presidencies in the modern era compared to an obviously cognitively impaired president who is violating the Constitution on a daily basis and running an administration that seems to be an open cesspool of graft.
I could go on, but I will hand the microphone to two highly regarded authors. I suggest that you read both essays:
See Rebecca Solnit, "I'm the Problem; It's Me": On the Confession the Mainstream Media Won't Make, and Margaret Sullivan, The Guardian, Yes, the media’s Biden coverage was flawed. But its reporting on Trump was far worse.
Solnit writes, in part,
The New York Times, Rolling Stone, New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Nation, New York Magazine, and of course CNN and Axios have all featured stories in the last few days generally treating its contents as gospel, piling on its claims that key people cited in the book (which is not out yet, but apparently available to select sources) say aren't true.
Political scientist and Atlantic contributor Norman Orenstein tweeted in a rare dissent, "I have a hard time watching journalists high five each other over books on WH covering up for Biden. A diversion from their own deep culpability in Trump’s election. False equivalence, normalizing the abnormal, treating Trump as no real danger were the norm, not the exception."
In just the last month, Trump has
Shared the statement that former President Obama should be tried before a military tribunal for treason
Claimed that he invented the word “equalize.”
While on his recent trip to the Middle East, posted that Taylor Swift is no longer “hot.”
Called for the investigation and prosecution of Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, and Oprah for appearing at Kamala Harris campaign events.
Hours after the public firestorm over Signalgate erupted, Trump said he “knew nothing” about it and asked a reporter to fill him in on what was happening.
Claimed he didn’t sign the presidential proclamation that invoked the Alien Enemies Act that was used to deport hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador.
Claimed not to be in charge of the administration’s positions before the Supreme Court regarding the return of Abrego Garcia.
Posted a bizarre video of himself playing every instrument in an AI rendition of a Journey song. You must watch: See it: Trump posts bizarre video of himself playing Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing'
Repeatedly and consistently demonstrated the inability to string together two consecutive coherent sentences.
The President Elon factor. I could go on, but you get the point, but I have left the most damning point for last: Trump delegated the duties of president to Elon Musk, the billionaire whose money elected Trump.
Everyone in America witnessed Musk running the government while Trump disclaimed knowledge about what Musk was doing.
And yet the media is in a meltdown that Joe Biden was in “cognitive decline” when Trump has ceased performing the duties of president! Add to that the open corruption (cryptocurrency schemes, Mideast real estate deals while traveling at taxpayer expense, and accepting Boeing 747s for his personal use).
Journalists should be rioting in the streets, trying to force newspapers into the hands of passers-by, shouting from the rooftops, and devoting every single column inch of their available space to the abdication of the presidency and the obvious mental deterioration of Donald Trump.
But, on Monday, the NYTimes has one front page story devoted to Jake Tapper’s book, and zero stories relating to Trump's ongoing violations of the Constitution and obvious signs of cognitive decline.
The legacy media have failed America in every way possible by failing to provide appropriate coverage of the threat posed by Trump. And they keep doing it.
To their everlasting shame.
This is excerpted from Robert B. Hubbell’s “Today’s Edition Newsletter.” Subscribe here.
Image: Politico.
An excellent analysis.