Biden at Forum: ‘We’ve Got To Spend Money To Keep From Going Bankrupt’; It's Not News at AP

July 17th, 2009 12:02 AM

BidensMessage071609

Today Joe Biden was in Alexandria, VA, and said, as reported by CNS News:

People look at me and say, "What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we've got to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?" The answer is "Yes,"I'm tellin' ya.

Matt Drudge thinks this is news (link is to his time-stamped archive, which won't change); it is his top headline. Allah at Hot Air thinks it's news, as do many other center-right bloggers.

So did Sean Hannity tonight.

Anyone with a fifth-grade sense of journalism would know that Biden's statement is newsworthy.

The Associated Press reported on Biden's Alexandria appearance. Here are the first three paragraphs of the wire service's unbylined story:

Vice President Joe Biden says there has never been a better time to overhaul the nation's health care system because the industry now recognizes that helping the uninsured will ultimately bolster its bottom line.

Biden joined Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at a health care forum in Alexandria, Va., on Thursday.

He told a group of nearly 200 people, mostly senior citizens, that he understands cynicism about drug companies' promises to contribute billions of dollars in savings.

The AP didn't think Biden's incredible statement was newsworthy; it must see part of its job description as "covering Joe Biden's tracks as much as possible, even if we look like ignorant fools when we do it."

The "Essential Global News Network" ought to be renamed the Apparatchik Press.

A related entry is at BizzyBlog.com.