Brian Stelter: Coverage of Biden's Health Was Complicated, Just as Aging Is Complicated

I'm not the biggest fan of Brian Stelter. He, like his former colleagues at CNN, is asking the question, could journalists have done a better job of reporting on President Joe Biden's mental acuity? "It's complicated" is the answer we're getting. Many journalists are writing think pieces about themselves and their coverage of Biden. Stelter is among them; he published a piece for Vox this week: "Did the media botch the Biden age story?"

As I wrote: The record of how Biden’s health was covered is complicated, just as aging is a complicated process... https://t.co/yS45M3RiAE
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 4, 2024

Stelter writes:

The national media wasn’t dodging the story: The biggest newspapers in the country published lengthy stories about Biden’s mental fitness. The public wasn’t in the dark about Biden’s age: Most voters (67 percent in a June Gallup poll) thought he was too old to be president even before the debate. But questions about Biden’s fitness for office were not emphasized as much as they should have been.
That’s the third option: The stories should have been tougher, the volume should have been louder.
“The hard thing about ‘Biden is old’ as a story is that it had a dead-end quality to it,” said Charlotte Alter, senior correspondent for Time magazine. “Biden is old. We know. So now what? You can’t turn back time. You can’t make him younger.”

I'm no fan of Stelter, but he's right in that newspapers did publish stories about Biden's mental fitness (and were swamped in the Twitter replies by people canceling their subscriptions).

I'm also no fan of Stelter for his relentless pursuit of President Donald Trump's mental acuity. Remember nutjob psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee — the editor of a book called “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President" — without ever meeting him in person? Back in January 2018, Lee “briefed” some Democrats on the Hill where she again pleaded for Trump to be restrained and put on a 72-hour psychiatric hold, with the only problem being physically restraining him “will really look like a coup, and while we are trying to prevent violence, we don’t wish to incite it through, say, an insurrection.”

Lee was one of Stelter's "Reliable Sources."

Joe Biden could see this as an opportunity: take and ace the mental fitness test that Donald Trump so miserably FAILED (I am not talking about what the fraudulent Dr. Ronny Jackson performed without training or qualification). https://t.co/XiDbQVMA37
— Bandy X Lee, MD, MDiv (@BandyXLee1) July 4, 2024

And remember when Stelter kept a calendar of days since Melania Trump had been seen in public?

Flashback: CNN's Brian Stelter aired a calendar to suggest First Lady Melania Trump was missing when she was actually recovering from kidney surgery pic.twitter.com/7UTVyQeASB
— Amber Duke (@ambermarieduke) August 18, 2022

Stelter thinks his Vox piece is profound. It's complicated.

It’s not complicated. The media worked overtime to lie to us. All the way up to the point where they could no longer hide it.
— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) July 4, 2024

The simple fact that so many were shocked at Biden’s debate performance proves the point.

The media was tripping over itself to claim that Biden’s G7 gaffes weren’t the obvious warnings that they were.
— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) July 4, 2024

Two weeks ago the Times was writing about "manipulated videos" trying make Biden look old and feeble.

My God, Weebles, stop digging.
— JWF (@JammieWF) July 4, 2024

Lol this is you pushing the “cheap fakes” lie 3 weeks ago. 🤷🏻‍♂️ https://t.co/1W5siq3hMf
— Rick Hinshaw (@RickHinshaw) July 4, 2024

You were complicit in the cheap fakes lie. Don’t piss on us and tell us it’s raining.
— Thirteen O'Clock - Todd (@o_thirteen) July 4, 2024

Two weeks ago you said anyone who had concerns with Joe Biden’s age was being misinformed. You didn’t say it was complicated, you said they were wrong. pic.twitter.com/eUilvNumZO https://t.co/MkPBpC18am
— a newsman (@a_newsman) July 4, 2024

The video doesn't lie. The media does. It's not complicated.

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