Biden, Allies Reportedly Frustrated With Media for ‘Hawkish’ Afghanistan Coverage
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President Joe Biden and his allies are reportedly “furious” with the media coverage of the chaos in Afghanistan.
The Biden administration has received serious criticism this past week for the rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and the fact that more Americans and Afghan allies were not evacuated sooner. Correspondents from CNN, NBC, and ABC fact-checked Biden for comments he made about the situation on the ground.
The Huffington Post’s Daniel Marans has new reporting Friday night that “although the White House’s failure to foresee the rapid fall of the Afghan government and prepare accordingly has exacerbated the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal, Biden and his allies are furious with what they see as reporters’ and pundits’ unduly hawkish coverage of the exit.”
A quote attributed to “a source close to the White House” said the following:
“They are elevating the Blob, whose members spent years lying about progress in Afghanistan (and who often have financial conflicts of interest),” the source said, using the “blob” colloquialism that refers to the Washington foreign policy establishment. “The result is that many in the press are left effectively endorsing the view that the U.S. should have sent more American service members into Afghanistan to fight and die to stop another Taliban offensive ― despite supposedly being impartial.”
The report received a fair amount of attention, and Senator Chris Murphy (D- CT) shared it, remarking, “Every word of this.”
Every word of this. https://t.co/eiwj5hUXJX
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 21, 2021
CNN’s Brianna Keilar, who has been critical of the Biden administration in recent days, responded by saying it’s a “false narrative — that pointing out the logistical implementation of this withdrawal has objectively been a shitshow is the same as arguing for a forever war.”
This is a false narrative – that pointing out that the logistical implementation of this withdrawal has objectively been a shitshow is the same as arguing for a forever war. It isn’t. https://t.co/Pa2GhY2hST
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 21, 2021
