During a Wednesday speech on hunger, nutrition and health, President Joe Biden called and looked out for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) who, along with two other people, died in a car accident last month.
“Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie?” asked Biden. “I didn’t think she was going to be here.”
MSNBC did not cover this inexcusable and embarrassing gaffe whatsoever, while CNN only had two pieces on its website as opposed to also its airwaves.
Giving credit where due, CNN’s online news report about the mortifying mistake was solid as it was just about the facts, as should be the case when doing reporting. The other piece, an analysis by editor-at-large Chris Cillizza, stated that while it was “a pretty big mistake to make,” the gaffe “plays into a caricature that Republicans – led by former President Donald Trump – have long been painting of him.”
Biden’s lack of acuity is not a caricature, rather it’s an unfortunate reality for the 79-year-old. While no one, including the president of the United States, is perfect,
Had Donald Trump done what Biden did, there would’ve been nonstop coverage on MSNBC and CNN. As Kevin Tober of the right-wing media watchdog Media Research Center (where I was an intern) wrote, NBC, CBS and ABC’s nightly newscasts omitted the disturbing moment.
But one need not imagine how it would have gone down. In 2019, then-President Trump referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook as “Tim Apple.” MSNBC had CNN covered the hiccup on air and Trump changing his story about it. There are countless other examples of gaffes or simple errors being covered as a national security concern.
The job of the media is to hold those in power accountable. While Hurricane Ian deserves most of the coverage at the moment, there is no excuse to not covering on air what was a horrific error for which the White House has refused to apologize. CNN and MSNBC should have had that gaffe “on top of mind.”