Tuesday's PBS NewsHour displayed a stark partisan contrast in coverage. It began with eleven minutes of promotional coverage of Biden's re-election announcement, with no mention of Hunter Biden. They then followed with eight minutes of negative coverage about the civil rape trial of Donald Trump as alleged by journalist E. Jean Carroll.
It could be summed up at "PBS Shines Biden's Shoes, Kicks Trump In The Groin."
Online, the Biden story was headlined "Biden touts accomplishments and vision as he officially launches reelection campaign." They ran 32 uninterrupted seconds of Biden's video, then let White House reporter Laura Barron Lopez underline Biden's attack.
"Republicans," she said, "are moving more towards extremes, particularly on LGBTQ, transgender issues, on abortion, on guns, but also on embracing political violence." Democrats can never be extreme on anything.
Then PBS turned to two Democrats for more DNC talking points. Pollster Celinda Lake said asking about Biden's age (he'd be 86 at the end of a second term) the "most foolish polling question out there, because a lot of people that say no [about running again] want to protect him from what they think is a very hard road ahead."
Their Trump-trashing story was titled "Trump faces civil trial in rape and defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll." They not only touted Carroll's unproven story of rape in the Bergdorf Goodman department store (she can't remember which year it was), they added other witnesses. "Jessica Leeds alleged Trump groped her on the flight in 1979. And People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff has accused him of groping her in 2005 at Mar-a-Lago while she was there to interview him."
When Trump announced his 2024 campaign on November 15, 2022, the NewsHour the next night didn't even include it as a highlight in the opening promos for the show. The story came 13 minutes into the show, and Geoff Bennett trashed Trump. "The former twice-impeached president now facing multiple civil and criminal kicked off a 2024 presidential campaign…His hour-long speech was filled with false claims and inaccuracies."
The contrast is dramatic. Enjoy the podcast below or wherever you listen to podcasts.
