On Sunday, NBC’s Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd interviewed author Franklin Foer who had recently written a book on the Biden presidency titled “The Last Politician.” The interview was pretty standard and included questions about Foer’s findings and insight on the interworkings of the Biden White House. When Todd read a quote from the book on Biden’s complaints about the coverage of him by the media, Foer made the laughable claim that Biden “has been covered probably tougher than he deserves.”
“You write, ‘Biden considered his poor approval rating a failure of the media, which someone neglected to note all the ways in which his administration was superior to Trump’s. It was also a failure of his own White House to effectively communicate. He complained that there weren’t enough surrogates on television defending him.’ I’m shocked to find out that a White House believes they have a communications problem, not a substance problem,” Todd remarked.
Foer replied that “every President who suffers an upside-down approval rating is going to moan about the media, and I think that there is some truth to it in his case where Trump caused the media to go — to become so emotional, to get so engaged in covering all the high drama.”
“I think with the Biden administration there’s been this desire on the part of the press to reassert its standards of objectivity,” he added.
“So I think on certain measures he’s probably right. He has been covered probably tougher than he deserves.”
If only there was a laugh track on Meet the Press.
Of course, that comment by Foer was laughable on its face. Biden is consistently shielded by the media, as has been frequently proven by NewsBusters.
The transcript is below:
NBC’s Meet the Press
9/3/2023
10:56:42 a.m. EasternCHUCK TODD: You write, “Biden considered his poor approval rating a failure of the media, which someone neglected to note all the ways in which his administration was superior to Trump’s. It was also a failure of his own White House to effectively communicate. He complained that there weren’t enough surrogates on television defending him.” I’m shocked to find out that a White House believes they have a communications problem, not a substance problem.
FRANKLIN FOER: Right. So I think that Biden has — of course every President who suffers an upside-down approval rating is going to moan about the media, and I think that there is some truth to it in his case where Trump caused the media to go — to become so emotional, to get so engaged in covering all the high drama. And I think with the Biden administration there’s been this desire on the part of the press to reassert its standards of objectivity. So I think on certain measures he’s probably right. He has been covered probably tougher than he deserves. But it also—
TODD: There’s no curve? He’s not being graded on a curve?
FOER: No.
TODD: No.
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