ABC News released the results of a new poll Sunday suggesting that President Biden’s approval among Americans is in free-fall. But he blames his woes largely on bad press. If they would just stop reporting facts, everything would be fine.
The poll indicated that more than two-thirds of Americans — 69% — disapprove of his handling of inflation. In addition, 57% disapprove of his handling of the economic recovery.
Meanwhile his job approval is also plummeting on his handling of crime and the COVID pandemic, according to the same poll.
During an appearance on NBC’s "The Tonight Show+ Friday, Biden told host Jimmy Fallon that his low approval ratings could be attributed to disinformation campaigns waged by news media.
“We’ve been at it less than a year. A lot has happened. People are afraid. People are worried. People are getting so much inaccurate information — I don’t mean about me — but about the situation,” he said. “They’ve been told Armageddon is on the way.”
He continued, “There is a lot of anxiety. My job is to be straightforward, shoot from the shoulder, let people know exactly what the truth is, and lay out how I’m going to make life better for them.”
And administration officials are already taking steps to quietly reshape how the media covers the president’s handling of issues — especially the economy.
“The White House, not happy with the news media's coverage of the supply chain and economy, has been working behind the scenes trying to reshape coverage in its favor. Senior White House and admin officials … have been briefing major newsrooms over the past week,” CNN reported.
“The officials have been discussing with newsrooms trends pertaining to job creation, economic growth, supply chains, and more,” the report continued. “The basic argument that has been made: That the country's economy is in much better shape than it was last year. I'm told the conversations have been productive, with anchors and reporters and producers getting to talk with the officials.”
Legal Insurrection reported that those efforts are already gaining fruit — at least with the “Peacock Network.”
Both CNBC’s Jim Cramer and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Scarborough gave Biden high marks for his “strong economy” and projected economic growth.
In addition, a former New York Times reporter warned news outlets that if their coverage of Biden is too brutal, America may see a GOP-controlled Congress elected in 2022 and a Republican president elected two years later — as if that’s a bad thing.
Quoting Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, he said, “My colleagues in the media are serving as accessories to the murder of democracy.”
He later added: “The country is in an existential struggle between self-governance and an authoritarian alternative. And we in the news media, collectively, have given equal, if not slightly more favorable, treatment to the authoritarians.”
Ironically, he’s right in saying that the mainstream press gives “more favorable treatment to the authoritarians” — but only because Democrats are the authoritarians, with their mask and vaccine mandates and travel bans on common carriers such as rail and commercial airlines.
“So enough about Biden’s age, about Harris’s unpopularity, about the impossibility of figuring out precisely the right note of Omicron caution, about lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” Bruni, now a Duke University public policy professor continued.
“It’s scary out there, sure. But it’ll be scarier still if Democrats can’t successfully project cooperation, confidence and hope.”
Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman got the message, and claimed Saturday that maybe inflation wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
“‘Inflation especially hurts the poor’ has truthiness — it sounds like it should be true. But I don't see either evidence or a mechanism,” he tweeted.
The following day Bloomberg Business offered this “advice on how to cope with rising inflation: Spend your paycheck right away.” That advice prompted Twitchy editor Greg Pollowitz to observe, “They’re literally sharing tips from Argentina.”
The function of a free and independent press is to be the government’s top skeptic and its most relentless watchdog — not its favorite lapdog.
That’s the reason for the First Amendment, which states, in pertinent part, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom … of the press.”
A right retained by the individual is a power denied to the state. Yet mainstream news outlets are now voluntarily handing its rights and powers over to government.
Americans have to jealously retain their freedoms — including freedom of the press — lest the media become a mirror of and a mouthpiece for the state.
In that event newspapers would become an American version of Pravda — something whose sole value is to line the bottom of birdcages. History teaches us that once freedoms are lost, they can never be regained.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. Read Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.