The Washington Post reports that President Biden's response to the Maui wildfire is being "scrutinized." But why? Although it's true that Biden's public remarks have been limited, Hawaii's governor sings his praises and the response on the ground has been great:
“I’ve never seen such dedication in a president, who within six hours dedicated his time to determine that this was an emergency, and to commit full repair, full reconstruction for our people here in Hawaii.”
....Indeed, The federal response effort has been substantial and multifaceted, with FEMA joining agencies including the Defense Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Small Business Administration to deliver aid to locals. By Saturday, more than 1,000 federal personnel were on the ground, and the rush of federal aid included thousands of blankets and cots, more than 50,000 meals and cash payments of $700.
So why the scrutiny? That finally comes in the 9th paragraph:
But as criticism, largely from Republicans, has intensified over the past week, White House officials have mounted a sweeping effort to showcase the president’s personal involvement in handling the crisis.
Of course. Republicans are pretending to be upset, so that means we have to write several hundred words about Biden's demeanor before we get to the part about how he's been closely involved behind the scenes, insuring that federal action is thorough and robust.
Of course.
Republicans own the American political press in every sense of the word own.
Back in the Clinton (Bill) years, the phrase "Mighty Wurlitzer" was often used to describe the right wing's stranglehold on the political "press."
Many's the day when our national press and pundit class is damned near the biggest problem in America.
Yes, that's terrible.
What are the cats doing in the rain?
Thanks for continuing to be a mouthpiece for the RNC, WaPo.
How many rolls of paper towels has he thrown, huh libs?
Do you think the repulsive could actually find anything to not whine about unless it was their own idea... What whiners and yes, the media are getting sickening with their two sided reporting. I have cancelled several online papers for this and WaPo is about to hit the chopping block also.
When your concept of political newsworthiness requires you to:
a) report anything one side complains about, while
b) suspending all judgment about the substance of such claims
you are essentially offering yourself up to become a propaganda conduit for the party most willing to distort reality. And in a system where one party is far more willing to do this, this make the out come of such "non-partisan" reporting irretrievably partisan.
This has been going on now for at least 3 decades, and yet the national press corps has yet to adjust its concept of political newsworthiness to compensate.
It's an astonishing case of an institution sticking to standards that are not only no longer operable, but that now systematically produce the very outcome they were meant to prevent.
Yabbut it gets eyeballs, and those mean ad revenue and beat-sweetening and a personal brand that appears above the fold!
Sorry, what was that about "newsworthiness" again ...?
(&btw it's not just WaPo. CNN now: "White House defends federal response to Maui wildfires, but some residents say it’s not enough.")
It's no accident the hurricane is called Hilary! And what about that 2.5 earthquake? Why didn't Biden stop that?
"Scientists question whether it's possible to prevent or mitigate the shaking from earthquakes, but Republicans point out that there are still many uncertainties in the science, and some residents are not satisfied. We talked with a group of area residents at a local diner over breakfast at 10:30 on Tuesday, and here's what we learned..."
Aren't you supposed to say "the science is not settled"?
Or maybe that is global warming specific?
See this is why I don't have a 6-figure stenographer's salary at The New York Times (please remember the "The" is capitalized, thank you.)
I don't get it, California went for her in 2016 over Bernie why is she punishing them!?
They misspelled her name. She's that petty, apparently.
"While the former president's support has only increased with his indictments, the sprawling investigations drawing Joe Biden into his son's scandals are causing great anxiety among Democrats."
Best as I can tell, Republicans were hoping for another President who would toss paper towel rolls at volunteers or a governor who stands around with a gaggle of reporters in white booties.
I didn't read the WaPo story too closely, so I might have missed it, but unlike Trump, Biden didn't need to wait. Biden issued an emergency declaration in the hours after the fires swept through Lahaina.
This is worse than just annoying. It contributes to what could be the most devastating event in U.S. history: the reelection of donald trump. Biden's low approval ratings undoubtedly reflect the widespread success of right-wing propaganda infecting the minds of voters far beyond the MAGA cult, together with deafening silence from the mainstream media intent on creating another quadrennial "dead heat" condition for their own benefit in 2024.
The frustration and resentment of many pundits that DeSantis is not close to Trump in the polls is palpable. But if it's impossible to pretend the Republican primary is a tight horse race, they can always spend 14 months declaring the Trump/Biden matchup is too close to call. They decided early in 2021 that this was Jimmy Carter's second term, and they're not about to admit they were wrong.
Devastating, yes, but just think of the all those profits the media companies will make.
You are a politician. Do you even know how to politics Biden? With an approval barely above 40 I guess the answer is no.
Take credit for doing good governing!
While I agree with almost every comment here, and with Josh Marshall's dictum that the DC press is hard-wired for republicans, I'm reading this story a little differently. I think the real meat of it comes a little more than halfway through: "Biden’s extended period of silence came as a political firestorm erupted back in Washington." ... "Even before Garland’s announcement, Biden had cut back his interactions with the press considerably." ... "After the interaction, Biden did not substantively engage with the White House press corps again for more than a week."
Basically, I think this reporter's goal is to embarrass the White House into giving the press more personal time with Biden.
But it's done in a very meta frame. Sort of Alexandra Petri stye it's all "presidential historians agree that how these guys react publicly to disasters is really, really critical, and yet Biden has been lying low and not saying anything even though his people positioned him as Dr Empathy and the administration is actually doing pretty effective things if you know where to look. But we've had to pry that story out of officials with red-hot pokers, and Biden has been actively avoiding us-- we the press, traditional tellers of presidential stories. And that leaves his enemies a big opening and even people on the ground in Lahaina don't know what's being done for them." (Never mind that his enemies are always going to criticize-- it's what they do for a living-- and people on the ground don't have electricity and are busy trying to pull their lives together and won't be reading newspaper stories for a while . . .)
Plus there's the gratuitous hit in the second graf about the silent five days which "Biden spent in part on vacation in Delaware as his son faced fresh legal jeopardy." That there's a reportorial snit, if you ask me.
So posing in the framework of analytical reportage, what we have here is a cry for Papa Biden to be nicer to his fresh-faced eager troupe of reporters who hang on his every word. That's how I read it, anyway. The republicans here are just bit players; the reporters want the chance to be stars again.
A huge part of John McCain's charm, reputedly, was that he always had a supply of doughnuts (etc) for his reporters, and gave them each a cutesy nickname.
This enabled him to change positions like a wind sock and still be lauded for it.
Hawaii's governor is a Democrat. Naturally, he is going to praise a Democratic president. /s