The Wall Street JournalĀ owes its readers ā€”Ā and the public ā€” better.

The business broadsheetĀ published and hyped a storyĀ Wednesday declaring that ā€œbehind closed doors,ā€Ā President Joe BidenĀ has shown ā€œsigns of slipping.ā€ The story questioned Bidenā€™s mental acuity, playing into a GOP-propelled narrative that the 81-year-old president lacks the fitness to hold the nationā€™s highest office.

But an examination of the report reveals a glaring problem: Most of the sources reportersĀ Annie LinskeyĀ andĀ Siobhan HughesĀ relied on were Republicans. In fact, buried in the story, the reporters themselves acknowledged that they had drawn their sweeping conclusion based on GOP sources who, obviously, have an incentive to make comments that will damage Bidenā€™s candidacy.

ā€œMost of those who said Biden performed poorly were Republicans, but some Democrats said that he showed his age in several of the exchanges,ā€ Linskey and Hughes conceded. The duo also noted that they had spoken to sources in the administration ā€œwho found no faultā€ with the way Biden conducted himself in meetings for which they were present.

  • OpenStars@discuss.online
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    5 months ago

    Well, somebody somewhere gets to choose anyway. The large majority of us do not, b/c of the Electoral College.