There’s no ducking the central fact — these are hard times in America.
The combination of domestic and foreign turbulence is creating a crises of confidence in the nation’s leadership, making these days especially difficult for one group of Americans: the media people whose job is to shield Joe Biden from any and all blame.
Talk about a tough assignment!
Fortunately for the president, there is a creative cadre of bunco artists who can be counted on to see no evil when he throws open the southern border or when his extended family gets fat checks from foreign potentates and princelings.
Move along, nothing to see here, they proclaim, their eyes wide shut.
These people used to be known as journalists but then came a man named Donald Trump and, by winning an election, caused them to lose their minds and morals.
They responded by dividing the world into Trumps and anti-Trumps and declared the Trumps to be permanently ignorant and evil, with the anti-Trumps always virtuous and vulnerable.
Seven years later, monkeys typing produce more trustworthy reports.
That’s not to sneer at the considerable skill and strong stomachs required to try to make Biden look like a good president and an honest man.
Some of the concoctions absolving him are Pulitzer-level work, every bit as accurate as the Russia, Russia, Russia stories that earned journalism’s top prize.
Although it takes a cold heart to ignore the suffering caused by Biden’s policies, it requires real talent to spin his mammoth failure as success and blatant corruption as a Republican myth.
Take the border debacle.
Sensible people know this was intentional because Biden took office determined to break the system of restraint Trump built.
To do less would render him an accomplice to evil and racism and Islamophobia and white supremacy and, well, Hitler.
So Biden ended the agreement with Mexico, stopped building the wall and promised his administration would be kinder.
Human traffickers, drug cartels, foreign agents and poor people from around the world took that as an invitation.
Belatedly, Biden said don’t come, the border is not open, but nobody believed him because it wasn’t true, and so they came in vast caravans and still they come.
The number is as many as 6 million, and that was before the end of Title 42 exclusions.
Now most cities in America are awash in those claiming asylum, a ruse that will let most stay forever.
The cost is unfathomable, yet activists already are pressing for work papers and citizenship.
Next up — Democratic Party enrollment.
Brazen broadsheets
If your job is to keep Biden in office and immune from blame, how do you spin this unprecedented mess?
Some prize-worthy examples present themselves.
The Washington Post, in a smokescreen that was especially resourceful, painted a portrait of a president frustrated and angry that his staff hadn’t solved the border problem.
“When Biden would have explosions, and he did have a bunch of them, he’d say: ‘D— it, you haven’t told me anything different from what you told me last week,’ ” a former official — anonymously, of course — told the paper still resting on its Watergate laurels.
Lest readers think Joe is crabby and too old, the official added, “Then 10 minutes later, he’d say: ‘Look, I’m sorry, I know everybody is trying.” ’
For public relations, that sequence is pure gold. In two sentences, we learn Biden cares deeply about the border, and is so brimming with decency he apologizes to underlings for scolding them.
What a mensch!
Thank God he’s president and not that Bad Orange Man.
The New York Times took a different tact in its border coverup.
The headline on Friday’s lead story called the historic migrant surge “A Wave Driven by Factors Beyond U.S. Control.”
The Gray Lady’s list of culprits range from the pandemic to the Russian invasion of Ukraine to Central American violence, adding up to what one Democrat labeled a “perfect storm” of factors.
The message is clear: Don’t blame Biden.
It could have happened to any president so it’s not fair to expect the buck to stop on his desk.
The story is a classic ploy of the left.
When a Democrat is failing, it’s always because of factors beyond control.
The New York version involves the claim that the city, when it’s failing under a Democrat mayor, is “ungovernable.”
When a Republican succeeds, it’s luck or police brutality or something.
As for protecting Biden from GOP probes into his family’s corrupt influence peddling, the media’s most consistent play is to raise the bar to ridiculous heights.
“House GOP’s Biden investigations sputter out of the gate,” was a Politico headline last month.
In early May, amid reports Hunter Biden might be indicted, the outlet created a sob story about the poor president.
“People close to Biden still worry about the personal toll it will take on a father who has already felt anguish about a son’s struggles amid a long history of family tragedy,” Politico weeped.
“And they wonder how long he can compartmentalize personal anger with the attacks on Hunter and the political calculation that he’s better off not responding to it.”
All that’s fit to spin
Did you spot the trick?
Instead of laying out Hunter’s likely crimes and the GOP probe, which officials say is about the president’s role in the schemes, the story cleverly turns the president into an innocent victim.
Well done, Politico!
Once again, however, it’s tough to top the Times when it comes to partisan coverups.
The secret of its success is practice, practice, practice.
The paper launched its Biden protection scheme this cycle with a hatchet job on Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, saying he has “cutthroat instincts” and is “a methodical and transactional political operator, willing to go to great lengths to crush his adversaries.”
Right, and Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were nice guys who finished first.
Later, when Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said a whistleblower claims the FBI has a document alleging Joe Biden engaged in a quid pro quo for money and Comer issued a subpoena to the FBI, the Times ignored the story completely.
Talk about cutthroat instincts!
Then last week, when Comer’s panel laid out a roadmap showing millions of foreign dollars flowing through a confusing welter of limited liability companies before being distributed to various Biden family members, the Times moved the goal posts and all but declared the probe a failure.
“4-Month GOP Inquiry Finds No Evidence of Wrongdoing by President,” the headline blared.
Oddly, I don’t recall the Times declaring the Russia probe a flop after four months.
Despite this media obfuscation and dishonesty, I believe Biden is headed for a fall.
Comer & Company are playing hardball like Nancy Pelosi Democrats and, most important, they have the facts on their side.
Patience and smart work will be rewarded with a mother lode of proof.
