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The Cleanup Crew for Biden's Flu Flubs
Townhall.com ^ | March 20, 2020 | Tim Graham

Posted on 03/20/2020 6:53:29 AM PDT by Kaslin

Every once in a while, the liberal journalists at PolitiFact grant President Donald Trump a rare rating of "Mostly True." Most recently, they verified a Trump tweet about Joe Biden: "During the 2009 swine flu outbreak, Biden made reckless comments unsupported by science & the experts. The Obama Admin had to clean up his mess & apologize for his ineptitude."

They explained that on April 30, 2009, Biden was interviewed by then-NBC host Matt Lauer on the "Today" show. Lauer asked, "If a member of your family came to you and said, 'Look, I want to go on a commercial airliner to Mexico and back,' within the next week, would you think it's a good idea?"

"It's not that it's going to Mexico. It's you're in a confined aircraft," Biden said. "When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft." He added that he wouldn't advise taking the subway, either: "If you're out in the middle of a field and someone sneezes, that's one thing; if you're in a closed aircraft or closed container or closed car or closed classroom, it's a different thing."

One reason PolitiFact wrote this up is that it rated Biden's claim "Pants on Fire" back in 2009. In an airplane, the experts said, a sneeze might travel a row or two but not throughout the whole plane.

The @TrumpWarRoom Twitter account found a 2009 video of then-White House press secretary Robert Gibbs trying to spin what Biden "meant to say" -- that if you're feeling ill, don't get on a plane. Next you hear Jake Tapper, then with ABC, shooting back saying, "With all due respect," Gibbs' statement wasn't "even remotely close" to what Biden said.

Here's the important part: The networks energetically circled the "news" wagons to protect Biden. They helped "clean up his mess," as Trump said.

Then-CBS anchor Katie Couric brought a doctor on "CBS Evening News" and said, "the vice president created a bit of a brouhaha ... but that's not terrible advice in certain situations, is it?" In 2008, Brent Baker at NewsBusters noted how Couric had earlier been so protective of Biden that she didn't correct him during an interview when he said Franklin Roosevelt "got on television" when the stock market crashed.

On ABC's evening newscast, then-anchor Charles Gibson ran the "Today" show clip of Biden and asked then-ABC medical editor Dr. Tim Johnson, "Is he overreacting?" Johnson admitted Biden was off-base, but then spun it into a positive: "In an ironic way, the reaction -- the information that has come out in reaction -- has been very informative."

Fox's Chris Wallace wasn't so sanguine in a New York talk radio interview with Steve Malzberg. "This just is very reckless, and, and, it just makes you wonder, 'What's the matter with this guy?'" he said. "I'm able to get on and off the air without saying -- I hope, most times -- without saying something stupid. He doesn't seem to be able to do that."

It's worth remembering that the media's coverage of infectious diseases resembles their coverage of every other potentially controversial topic. Verifiable facts are often secondary, and political spin dominates. Liberal media outlets find it boring to merely organize and recite facts. It's in their nature to nurture and protect the people they locate on "the right side of history."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: leftwingmedia; mattlauer; mediabias

1 posted on 03/20/2020 6:53:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: All
HAS BIDEN BEEN RED-FLAGGED YET?

According to gun-grabbers, Biden is very dangerous. He owns a 10 gauge shotgun, and was caught on film demonstrating how to shoot it.


2 posted on 03/20/2020 6:58:56 AM PDT by Liz (Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: All

With any luck, Joe Biden will be quarantined until after the election, while Bernie Sanders will get stuck in Cuba looking for a cure.


3 posted on 03/20/2020 6:59:15 AM PDT by Liz (Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: Kaslin
Biden is that crazy Uncle you only see at family gatherings who is entertaining and easy to laugh at (yes, at not with) - but that you never leave your kids alone with.

He is not Presidential material. While he's probably never quite been "all there" he is now obviously suffering from early-onset dementia. Lib lurkers out there - if you vote for him you're really voting for whoever the leftist power-brokers decide to place as his VP. Because I'll bet you a good bottle of Bourbon that if Biden were to get elected, within a couple of months, 6 at the most, he'd be "found" incapable of discharging the duties of his office and step down. Of course if Clinton is his VP, he'll probably have a fatal or at least incapacitating accident on the way home from the inauguration...

4 posted on 03/20/2020 7:17:43 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps ( Be ready!)
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To: Liz

But they never have the ammo only the corks that go in the end of the barrel.


5 posted on 03/20/2020 7:39:25 AM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: Vaduz

LOL.......corks.


6 posted on 03/20/2020 7:55:49 AM PDT by Liz (Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: Kaslin

Just saw that Biden claims we have coronavirus because of Trump.

Also just saw that Americans approve Trump’s performance against the virus by 55-45%.


7 posted on 03/20/2020 8:05:25 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Epstein pulled a Carradine, the bozo.)
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To: Kaslin

It will be interesting to see what excuse the Democrats and the media come up with this fall for cancelling the presidential debates. It is difficult to see Biden looking good in a debate with Trump, even with Candy Crowley type moderators helping him.

As an aside, Romney melted in 2012 when Obama and Crowley tag teamed him in a debate. Romney likely lost the election in that moment given how weak he appeared. Imagine if the same thing happened to Trump in a debate. He’d blister both the moderator and the opposing candidate.


8 posted on 03/20/2020 8:42:32 AM PDT by Soul of the South (The past is gone and cannot be changed. Tomorrow can be a better day if we work on i)
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