President Joe Biden’s reign has become a nonstop parade of blunders and half-truths, however, it seems major news outlets like ABC, CBS, and NBC have put on their blinders. Outright lies fall unimpeded from the President’s mouth and land squarely on a field of radio silence from mainstream media.
Last month, during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Biden tells a familiar tale about how he was reportedly “arrested” fighting for black civil rights. Sound the bells of fact checking? Silence. It took The Washington Post and PolitiFact to point out the president has retold this story multiple times with no actual evidence of his arrest ever surfacing.
And then we have Biden claiming to have achieved ‘most eligible bachelor’ status after the unfortunate passing of his wife in 1972. Not only is there no trace of such a list, Washington Post even quotes a press aide saying Biden turned down a profile about his bachelorhood. Here we have another tale which only serves to mystify, yet the major networks remain mum.
Throw in questionable memories of his time as an unmarried senator, receiving inappropriate photographs from women, promptly handed over to the Secret Service – a group whose job is not pornographic photo interception. Why these photos would be of interest to the Secret Service is anyone’s guess.
Off the back of these fantastical tales, Biden informs a Wisconsin crowd that one of his childhood Catholic school teachers was drafted by the Green Bay Packers, which was quickly disproved by the readily available NFL records. This, coupled with his over-inflation of his high school football achievements, paints a picture of an ambitious memory.
Then there’s Biden’s claims of heroics from his lifeguarding days, alleging to have saved approximately half-a-dozen kids. When cross-checked, this account falls flat as a dehydrated swimmy on hot pavement.
To top it all, Biden doubles down on a previously debunked assertion that he once drove an 18-wheeler truck. Despite the White House attempting to save face by stating Biden briefly drove a school bus, the truth is far removed from the machismo of a truck-driving summer.
Throughout all these instances, ABC, CBS and NBC’s coverage of these blatant untruths equals a blatantly remarkable zero seconds.
Major news networks should be standing on the frontline of fact checking, particularly when statements are made by those with the highest power. The apparent lack of critical coverage toward Biden’s mouthfuls of misinformation exposes a worrying gap, a gap through which trust is slipping, and raising serious concerns about the role of the media in holding authority accountable. The time is now to correct this apparent dereliction of duty. As it stands, the deafening silence from these outlets rings louder than any of the President’s tall tales.
