Connect with us

Published

on

Watch a few minutes of the NBA Finals , and youll likely notice how the Dallas Mavericks Luka Doncic argues with the officials every time a whistle blows in his direction. Working the refs is a long-standing tradition, but Doncic, one of basketballs marquee stars, takes complaining to a new level. In his eyes, the referees are incapable of correctly calling the game, no matter the circumstance. Whining has become muscle memory.

A similar dynamic has lately been playing out between members of President Joe Bidens campaign staff and journalists. Each week, Biden-team members and a cadre of notable Democrats spend hours locked in a public spat not just against former President Donald Trump, but against the media.

Recently, TJ Ducklo, a Biden-campaign senior adviser for communications, posted on X: The President just spoke to approx 1,000 mostly black voters in Philly about the massive stakes in this election. @MSNBC @CNN & others did not show it. Instead, more coverage about a trial that impacts one person: Trump. Then theyll ask, why isnt your message getting out? Responding to Ducklo, the election statistician turned Substack writer Nate Silver pointed out that Democrats often lament that the media dont cover Trumps misdeeds enough. Ducklo fired back: This perfectly incapsulates [sic] the disconnect between the ivory tower/beltway know-it-alls and voters. Donald Trumps trials dont impact real people. They impact Donald Trump. His horrific, draconian, dangerous policies impact voters. Cover those. Stop covering polls & process.

To suggest that a formerand potentially futurepresidents legal woes are items not worth discussing is, frankly, absurd. But Ducklos complaint was part of a much larger theme: Bidens allies believe that journalists are failing to meet the moment; that theyre falling back on horse-race coverage and ignoring the knock of fascism at Americas door.

Many Biden supporters and campaign staffers have fashioned this argument into a shield against any critical coverage of the president. Like a previous White House occupant raving about fake stories, they sometimes behave as if they are the arbiters of whats newsworthy at all. Sounding a bit like Donald Trump isnt the only problem with this strategy, though; its also highly unlikely to advance the campaigns larger goal of actually winning the election.

Bidens first bid for president , in 1988, was one of the subjects covered in Richard Ben Cramers What It Takes, a masterpiece of the campaign-journalism genre. When Cramer died from lung cancer in 2013, Biden, then serving as vice president, spoke wistfully at his memorial service. Although Biden has endured his share of embarrassments that have triggered unflattering news cycles across his decades in public serviceincluding a plagiarism scandal that ended his 88 bidhe has maintained an apparently earnest belief in the role of journalism in upholding democracy. Now some members of his 2024 team worry that the press has become Trumps unwitting accomplice.

David A. Graham: How Musk and Biden are changing the media

Rather than reserve their concerns for phone calls, as was custom for virtually every pre-Trump presidential campaign, they are following Trumps lead and making their attacks public. Online and on social media, youve certainly seen Bidens aides get into it more with reporters, David Folkenflik, NPRs media correspondent, told me. God knows these are conversations that would have taken place in private before.

Headlines, specifically those that appear in The New York Times, are daily points of consternation. Campaign gripes sometimes seem to share a wavelength with the X parody account New York Times Pitchbot, which has carved out a niche satirizing both sides journalism. Ammar Moussa, the Biden campaigns director of rapid response, posted on X recently that The Wall Street Journal had committed unbelievable journalistic malpractice for its story on what members of Congress allegedly say behind closed doors about the presidents mental acuity. The complaint among Bidens allies was that the story didnt include enough quotes from people who believe the president is up to the job.

Speaking broadly about this moment, Ducklo told me, Media cant cover this election like this is George W. Bush versus Al Gore. Donald Trump is a fundamentally, uniquely different candidate that has to be covered in a uniquely different way than ever before. What does this look like in practice? The Biden campaign seems to believe that journalists should stop reporting on polls, rallies, and other tentpoles of traditional presidential races, and instead devote their resources to telling Americans that Trump wants to be a dictator, over and over again. If that means ignoring Bidens missteps and weaknesses, well, the Biden campaign can accept that.

When I asked the Biden campaign about its relationship with the media, it emailed me a statement: This election isnt just about a few minor policy differenceswe are running against a guy that has all but promised to erode American democracy, rule as a dictator and strip Americans of their freedom Donald Trump has fundamentally changed the stakes of this election, and we firmly believe it is everyones job to not take their eye off the ball of just how dangerous Donald Trump has become to the basic fundamentals this country was founded on, the free press especially.

Most of the people willing to speak on the record about this issue have the word former in their job title. Former Deputy White House Press Secretary Eric Schultz, who served in Barack Obamas administration, has become one of the most fiery Democratic voices on the perceived 2024 problem. WSJ adopting the Arthur Sulzberger extortion approach: give us an interview or well parrot Republicans that Biden is too old, Schultz posted on X recently, attacking both that contentious Journal report and the New York Times publisher in the space of a few words.

Youre right, I pop off a lot on this online, Schultz told me. He also acknowledged that most readers of publications like the Times are probably supporting Biden, and that its the low-information voters whom Democrats need to do a better job of winning over. The instrument to reach swing voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, for example, is not the Times, Schultz said, but that doesnt mean the way The New York Times covers this race is insignificant.

Schultz, who playfully referred to himself as a Democratic hack, said that he believes the media have fallen into their worst habit of covering only a single story each campaign cycle. In 2016, he said, that story was Hillary Clintons private email server. Although the media did obsess over Clintons emails, former FBI Director James Comeys very public investigation into the subject is what made it impossible to avoid. At any rate, reporters devoted tons of resources to documenting the 2016 Trump campaigns many scandals, including the infamous Trump Tower meeting about potential dirt on Clinton, and the Access Hollywood tape. Journalists were extremely tough on Trump then, as they are now.

But Schultz sees the past differently and now believes that 2024s single media narrative is Bidens age. He argued that if you were to ask 100 D.C. reporters which candidate is more capable of thinking through and discussing any policy issue, 100 of them would say Joe Biden. Yet Biden, he said, is the only one who gets hammered on age. Schultz even went so far as to say that political journalists have become Trumps enablers: The confluence of the burn-it-all-down message and journalists having a long-standing bias towards negativity it amounts to putting the thumb on the scale for Donald Trump.

Mark Leibovich: Ruth Bader Biden

Kate Bedingfield, a member of Bidens 2020 campaign team who went on to become his first White House communications director before leaving last year, echoed Schultzs larger critique. I am not arguing that Biden should never be criticized, she told me. I dont believe that. Yet she also sid that Bidens flubs on the campaign trail were being covered with the same intensity as, for instance, a Trump statement about how hed subvert the Constitution. Those two things are not comparable, and I dont think its a partisan statement to say that, Bedingfield said.

Biden allies are quick to bring up variations on that theme: The candidates are not comparable, but theyre being covered as if they were. Kate Berner, the White House deputy communications director until last year, suggested that one obvious and major difference between Trump and Biden was precisely their relationship with the media: Reporters feel unsafe covering Trump events, not Biden events.

I have covered many Trump rallies and have never felt unsafe, even when asking his supporters difficult questions. Its true, though, that vilifying the media has been a building block of Trumps political identity. Once, in an interview with 60 Minutes Leslie Stahl, Trump explained his motivation: The more he went after the media, the less voters would trust any negative story published about him. This strategy, in tandem with one coined by his former adviser Steve Bannon, to flood the zone with shit, has succeeded. And if Trump returns to office next year, he has threatened to prosecute his adversariespotentially including journalists.

The Biden campaign doesnt menace journalists, but it doesnt trust them, either. Biden has held the fewest press conferences of any American president since Ronald Reagan. And Biden staffers clearly believe they have every right to set the agenda of journalistic decision making. As Berner put it, Theres plenty of work that the White House and the campaign and others do behind the scenes to shape a story, to push back, to have editorial conversations. But when coverage is particularly out of bounds, its fair for them to make those criticisms public, because working the refs publicly is an important way of taking that spotlight and turning it around back on them. That this statement sounded Trumpian seemed lost on her.

Few people better understand the competing motivations of the media and politicians than David Axelrod. Long before becoming an architect of Barack Obamas presidential election campaign and a White House adviser, Axelrod was a newspaper journalist. He told me about covering City Hall in Chicago and having mayors threaten to expel him from the building because they didnt like the stories he was writing. Axelrods opinion on this strategy is that its ineffective.

Generally, my view is if you are spending your time complaining about news coverage, its kind of a losers lament and a waste of time, Axelrod said. He went on: Trading snarky asides with members of the news media is not, to me, putting points on the board. Unless youre going to embrace the idea that Trump has, which is youre gonna make the news media a foil I dont really sense thats their plan, he said of the Biden campaign.

Sometimes youre going to get a bad story that you deserve, he add later. And sometimes youre going to get stories that you dont like, but that are within the parameters of what good reporting is. And those you should let go.

Trump can win this race without favorable media coverage: By spending the better part of a decade turning the press into his staunch adversary, hes become dependent on negative stories. Critical reporting fires Trump up, but it also gives him material that he can use, in turn, to fire up his base. Trump has sold millions of voters on a fantasy world in which crooked journalists peddle fake news even when theyre recording, reporting, and broadcasting his quotes verbatim. He and his voters believe that any election Trump loses is rigged. That the former presidents trials are all shams. That the Democrats are one enemy, the Department of Justice is another, and the media are a third.

From the January/February 2024 issue: Is journalism ready?

Biden is in a different, arguably opposite position. His campaign argues that Democrats, unlike Republicans, are actually tethered to reality. Bidens people are desperately trying to convince voters that the country is in much better shape than most Americans seem to believe. That elections are safe. That the economy, and unemployment, are not as bad as youve heard. Bidens team needs voters to trust reputable publications that reliably print and publish factssuch as the Times and the Journal.

Then some campaign staffers and high-profile Democratic supporters turn around and attack these publications, in the process casting doubt on their reliability. Its a losing proposition.

When Luka Doncic works the refs, hes not helping his cause. Last Wednesday, during a pivotal game in the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, he was forced to sit on the bench with just minutes to go after fouling out (and complaining about it). When Biden-campaign allies work the media, theyre at best wasting time, suggesting that they have run out of better ideas for how to try to save their candidate.

Bidens belief in the Constitution means he supports a free and independent press. Authoritarians rise by lying and sowing mistrust. If journalists are truly going to combat that forceas Bidens campaign implores them to dothey will have to be honest and rigorous about not just Trump but also his opponent.

Continue Reading

Politics

Norman Tebbit: Former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government dies aged 94

Published

on

By

Norman Tebbit: Former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher's government dies aged 94

Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.

Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.

One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.

He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.

He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and party chairman Norman Tebbit.
Pic: PA
Image:
Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.

“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.

“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.

“May he rest in peace.”

Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
Pic: PA
Image:
Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA

Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.

“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.

“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”

Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.

He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with Employment Secretary Norman Tebbit.
Pic: PA
Image:
Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA

Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.

Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.

Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.

Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.

He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.

Norman Tebbit during the debate on the second reading of the European Communities (Amendment) Bill, in the House of Lords.
Pic: PA
Image:
Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA

As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.

His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.

He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.

What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.

Continue Reading

Politics

‘Oui’ or ‘non’ for Starmer’s migration deal?

Published

on

By

'Oui' or 'non' for Starmer's migration deal?

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈       

The first European state visit since Brexit starts today as President Emmanuel Macron arrives at Windsor Castle.

On this episode, Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy look at what’s on the agenda beyond the pomp and ceremony. Will the government get its “one in, one out” migration deal over the line?

Plus, which one of our presenters needs to make a confession about the 2008 French state visit?

Continue Reading

US

Benjamin Netanyahu nominates Donald Trump for Nobel Peace Prize – as Gaza ceasefire talks continue

Published

on

By

Benjamin Netanyahu nominates Donald Trump for Nobel Peace Prize - as Gaza ceasefire talks continue

Israel’s prime minister has nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement at a White House dinner, handing over the letter for the US president to read.

“Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful,” Mr Trump said.

The Israeli leader said Mr Trump was “forging peace as we speak, and one country and one region after the other”.

Organisers award the prize to the person who does the most for “fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”.

Benjamin Netanyahu showed President Trump the Nobel nomination letter. Pic: AP
Image:
Benjamin Netanyahu handed Donald Trump the Nobel nomination letter. Pic: AP

Mr Trump took credit for stopping Iran and Israel‘s “12-day war” last month, announcing it with fanfare on Truth Social, and the ceasefire has so far held.

The president has claimed US strikes obliterated Iran’s purported nuclear weapons programme – and that the country now wants to restart negotiations.

“We have scheduled Iran talks, and they want to,” Mr Trump told reporters on Monday. “They want to talk.”

👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈

Iran hasn’t confirmed the move, but its president told US broadcaster Tucker Carlson he believes his country can resolve differences with the US through dialogue.

Masoud Pezeshkian also said Iran would be willing to resume cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.

However, he said full access to nuclear sites wasn’t yet possible as US strikes had damaged them so badly.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Netanyahu arrives in US for ceasefire talks

Away from Iran, fighting continues in Gaza and Ukraine.

Mr Trump famously boasted before his second stint in the White House that he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours.

The reality has been very different – with Ukraine saying last week that Russia unleashed the heaviest aerial attack of the war so far.

Critics have also claimed Vladimir Putin is “playing” his US counterpart and that he has no intention of agreeing a ceasefire.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Russia bombards Ukraine with drones and missiles

However, Mr Trump could try to take credit for progress in Gaza if – as he’s suggested – an agreement on a 60-day ceasefire is done this week.

Indirect negotiations with Hamas are taking place that could lead to the release of some of the remaining 50 Israeli hostages and a surge in aid to Gaza.

The White House said Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is travelling to Qatar this week to try to seal the agreement.

Read more:
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza

IDF troops ‘psychologically broken’ after Gaza – UN expert

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

‘Some Israeli commanders can decide to do war crimes’

Follow the World
Follow the World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Whether a temporary pause could open a path to a lasting peace remains uncertain, with the two sides’ criteria for peace still far apart.

Mr Netanyahu has said Hamas must surrender, disarm and leave Gaza – something it refuses to do.

He also told reporters on Monday that the US and Israel were working with other countries who would give Palestinians “a better future” – and indicated those in Gaza could move elsewhere.

“If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave,” he added.

“We’ve had great cooperation from… surrounding countries, great cooperation from every single one of them. So something good will happen,” Mr Trump said.

The president was widely criticised earlier this year when he suggested resettling Gaza’s population to countries such as Jordan and Egypt and turning it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Human rights groups said the plan amounted to ethnic cleansing and most Gazans said they would never consider leaving.

Continue Reading

Trending