WELCOME TO BIAS BREAKDOWN.
I’M YOUR HOST KARAH RUCKER.
THE “BIDEN BOOKS” AND “BIDEN AUDIO TAPES” – HAVE BEEN DRIVING THE NEWS CYCLE –
WITH CNN ANCHOR JAKE TAPPER’S NEW BOOK OUT **TODAY.
THAT WAS UNTIL IT WAS ANNOUNCED THIS WEEKEND – THE FORMER PRESIDENT WAS DIAGNOSED ON FRIDAY WITH AN AGGRESSIVE FORM OF PROSTATE CANCER –
ACCORDING TO BIDEN’S PERSONAL OFFICE.
THE TIMING OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT – AND **DIAGNOSIS – IS NOW OPEN FOR DEBATE AMONG NEWS OUTLETS.
MOST OF OUR SHOWS –
WE SHOWCASE TWO OPPOSING NARRATIVES AND OFTEN OPPOSITE TALKING POINTS COMING FROM MEDIA WITH A LEFT AND RIGHT POLITICAL BIAS.
THERE IS STILL SOME OF THAT OF COURSE.
HOWEVER IN THIS EPISODE – WE’LL SHOW YOU THERE IS **SOME **RECENT ALIGNMENT IN COVERAGE –
LIKE THE **QUESTIONS OUTLETS ARE ASKING AND CERTAIN **SKEPTICISM THEY ARE SHARING.
BUT THERE’S A MAJOR DIFFERENCE.
NEWS OUTLETS ON THE RIGHT ARE SUGGESTING THE TIMING OF THE CANCER DIAGNOSIS COULD BE LINKED TO A LARGER “BIDEN COVER UP”.
WHEREAS LEFT-LEANING OUTLETS DISMISS THE LINK AS A “CONSPIRACY THEORY.”
THAT’S THE FOCUS OF TODAY’S BIAS BREAKDOWN.
FORMER PRESIDENT BIDEN HAS BEEN MAKING HEADLINES –
AS A SLEW OF BOOKS – LARGELY NEGATIVE TOWARD BIDEN – HIT STORE SHELVES – INCLUDING ONE AS RECENT AS TODAY.
AND AUDIO TAPES RELEASED FRIDAY REVEALED WHY SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR DESCRIBED BIDEN AS “AN ELDERLY MAN WITH A POOR MEMORY..”
BUT OVER THE WEEKEND – THE BIGGEST STORY HIT – BIDEN – DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER.
RIGHT-LEANING MEDIA – ARE REPORTING ON THE TIMING OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT AS MORE EVIDENCE OF WHAT THEY CALL A “COVER UP” OVER BIDEN’S HEALTH AND COGNITIVE ABILITIES.
WHILE LEFT-LEANING MEDIA – ARE CALLING ANY ALLEGATIONS OF A “COVER UP” A “CONSPIRACY THEORY.”
“It’s fair to speculate that biden’s doctors aren’t telling the truth. Could have been medical malpractic, a fluke, or medical cover-up.”
:40ish “this narrative from the legacy media today that we should somehow drop the conversation about joe biden’s health and the cover up and the lies is completely ridiculous.”
“It makes me wonder is there any industry like the media that orchestrated a similar cover up?”
“I saw hakeem jeffries the democratic leader in the house come out today and say that republicans are pushing conspiracy theories for suggesting what you just did.”
“Are we really doing the conspiracy theory thing? Are they going to go back to that well again? He’s dismissing it as a conspiracy theory, it’s like dude everything we’ve been saying about this guy and his condition are correct.”
“What this cancer diagnosis has done on the right is it has renewed conspiracy theories about what was going on in the biden white house as well.”
“There are already conspiratorial ideas taking shape as well. Donald trump jr for example suggesting this is being announced now so that biden will be viewed more sympathetically.”
“Everyone wants to pile on, and everybody wants to point fingers and blame and say he should have gotten out here. Oh my gosh, the conspiracy. They were hiding all of this.”
“The conspiracy theories are sick. The people who are trafficking in them are words i will not use on tv. And i think everybody needs to take a beat and a breath. They do. Take a beat and a breath. Remember the humanity of the man.”
HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW.
THIS IS THE STATEMENT FROM BIDEN’S PERSONAL OFFICE –
SAYING THE PRESIDENT WAS BEING SEEN AFTER THE “FINDING OF A PROSTATE NODULE.”
“HE WAS DIAGNOSED WITH PROSTATE CANCER, CHARACTERIZED BY A GLEASON SCORE OF 9 WITH METASTASIS TO THE BONE.”
THE TYPE OF CANCER – IS AN AGGRESSIVE ONE. STAGE FOUR THAT’S SPREAD TO THE BONE.
AND THE FORMER PRESIDENT RECEIVED SUPPORT AND PRAYERS FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE POLITICAL AISLE.
FOR DOCTORS AND ANALYSTS – ON BOTH LEFT AND RIGHT LEANING NETWORKS – WHO SPOKE ABOUT THE DIAGNOSIS –
THE LATE STAGE CANCER – CAME AS A SHOCK.
“Doesn’t it take some time for prostate cancer to develop to the point…he’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade…it’s a little surprising.”
He didn’t develop it in the last 100-200 days. He had it while he was president. He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021.”
“It’s mystifying as to how it was not caught sooner and when it could have been diagnosed before it had metastasized to his bones. And that’s what some people are indeed saying.”
“One of the big questions people are having is was this missed? Did the president’s medical care completely miss this or was this potentially withheld from the american people while he was president? And there’s still a lot of questions.”
“in my professional opinion, to me, it was probably diagnosed earlier, and then this is just a recurrence of prior cancer after treatment.”
“he’s probably had it for at least 5 years if not 10 years.”
YOU HEARD THERE –
A LOT OF SKEPTICISM OVER THE TIMING OF THE **DIAGNOSIS FROM BIDEN’S DOCTORS.
BUT THERE IS ALSO **BIPARTISAN SKEPTICISM OVER THE TIMING OF THE CANCER **ANNOUNCEMENT –
AS IT COINCIDED WITH A WAVE OF BOOKS BEING PUBLISHED ABOUT BIDEN – LARGELY IN THE FORM OF “CONFESSIONALS” OVER A COGNITIVE DECLINE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
IT ALSO CAME THE DAY AFTER AXIOS RELEASED LEAKED AUDIO FROM BIDEN’S INTERVIEW WITH SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT HUR OVER CLASSIFIED FILES FOUND AT BIDEN’S HOME.
BOTH THE BOOKS AND TAPES HAVE LED TO NEGATIVE PUBLICITY IN THE HEADLINES.
A FEW EXAMPLES – THE HILL WROTE “Book excerpts **paint a dim** picture of aging Biden in last year’s campaign.”
CBS WROTE – New book claims Biden was “out of it”
FOX NEWS – “TERRIFYING: AUDIO SHOWCASES FORMER PRESIDENT’S DECLINE.”
NBC NEWS – “AUDIO OF INTERVIEW **CONFIRMS BIDEN MEMORY LAPSES.”
THE BIDEN BOOKS AND TAPES – COINCIDING WITH BIDEN’S CANCER ANNOUNCEMENT – AND SOME ARE CALLING IT **NOT A COINCIDENCE.
FORMER CONGRESSMAN DEAN PHILLIPS OF MINNESOTA – A DEMOCRAT – “SUGGESTED THAT THE FORMER PRESIDENT HAD TIMED THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS DIAGNOSIS TO **DEFLECT THE GROWING WAVE OF CRITICISM FROM WITHIN THE PARTY.”
HE TOLD THE TIMES – “I DON’T THINK IT’S COINCIDENTAL THAT THIS WAS ANNOUNCED THIS WEEK”.
SOME TV ANALYSTS ON THE LEFT SAY BECAUSE OF BIDEN’S CANCER DIAGNOSIS – SCRUTINY OVER BIDEN SHOULD BE “MUTED” FOR NOW.
“I think those conversations are going to happen but they should be more muted and set aside for now as he’s struggling through this.
BUT SOME NEWS HOSTS FROM **BOTH LEFT AND RIGHT NETWORKS ARE NOT IGNORING THE TIMING.
“The timing, jessica, is just extraordinary. We know from the statement from his spokesman he learned the diagnosis on friday. Well what was the big story on friday? It was the release of those audio excerpts from his conversation with robert hur back in 2023.”
“so you have that as one of the elements of the timing here, and then you have as you and paul acknowledged, this book coming out. One of the biggest political books in several years.”
“The timing is telling you that this cancer is being used as a tool to deflect from outrage to sympathy. But normal human beings, we can have both…so we can feel sad, but that’s not going to infringe on this part of my brain, that is reserved for this cover up of his incapacitation.
DURING THESE EPISODES –
I LIKE TO OFFER MEDIA COMPARISONS – LIKE THE ONES YOU JUST SAW AND HEARD – BUT I ALSO LIKE TO PROVIDE AS MUCH CONTEXT AS I CAN REGARDING WHATEVER MEDIA NARRATIVE WE’RE TACKLING THAT DAY –
SOME FACTS TO THE STORY OVER JUST THE NOISE.
RIGHT NOW – THERE’S NOT A LOT **DEFINITIVELY **KNOWN REGARDING BIDEN’S CANCER DIAGNOSIS.
WHAT WE HAVE TO GO BY – IS ONE OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM BIDEN’S PERSONAL OFFICE.
WE DON’T KNOW TO WHAT EXTENT BIDEN’S DOCTORS WERE RUNNING TESTS – SUCH AS PSA BLOOD TESTS – THAT **COULD HAVE DETECTED CANCER DURING HIS TIME AT THE WHITE HOUSE.
BUT WE KNOW IT WAS ROUTINE FOR SOME PRESIDENTS TO RECEIVE THEM – GIVEN SOME MEDICAL RECORDS BELONGING TO PRESIDENT TRUMP AND FORMER PRESIDENT OBAMA MADE PUBLIC.
WE KNOW KEVIN O’CONNOR WAS BIDEN’S PERSONAL DOCTOR FOR MORE THAN A DECADE BEFORE BIDEN BROUGHT HIM TO THE WHITE HOUSE TO SERVE AS HIS PHYSICIAN DURING HIS TERM AS PRESIDENT.
THE PHYSICIAN BRIEFLY SPOKE TO THE NEW YORK POST IN JULY OF LAST YEAR – TELLING THE OUTLET THE PRESIDENT WAS IN GOOD HEALTH.
“How’s the president’s health? Excellent, thanks.”
“It is? Are you going to come to the briefing room to address us?”
“Probably not.”
“Could that change before the end of his term?”
“Uh, hope not.”
WHILE THERE AREN’T A LOT OF ANSWERS RIGHT NOW ABOUT BIDEN’S PREVIOUS MEDICAL RECORDS AND TESTS –
THAT COULD CHANGE.
THE HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE IS CURRENTLY INVESTIGATING WHETHER THERE WAS AN INTENTIONAL COVER-UP OF BIDEN’S MENTAL STATE DURING HIS PRESIDENCY.
THE COMMITTEE PREVIOUSLY REQUESTED AN INTERVIEW WITH O’CONNER AND THREE BIDEN WHITE HOUSE AIDES… BUT THOSE INTERVIEWS NEVER HAPPENED.
HOWEVER – REPUBLICANS **COULD SUBPOENA O’CONNOR AND ASK HIM QUESTIONS ABOUT BIDEN’S CANCER DIAGNOSIS.
THERE ARE SOME CALLS FOR THAT TO HAPPEN – BUT NO OFFICIAL WORD THE COMMITTEE WILL DO SO AS OF THIS RECORDING.
IN SUMMARY –
QUESTIONS REMAIN REGARDING BIDEN’S HEALTH RECORDS AND HIS CANCER DIAGNOSIS.
NEWS OUTLETS ACROSS THE POLITICAL AISLE ARE SHARING SKEPTICISM OVER THE TIMING OF HIS DIAGNOSIS – BOTH CRITICAL OVER **WHY DOCTORS COULDN’T HAVE CAUGHT IT EARLIER – AND THE **POLITICAL TIMING –
GIVEN THE RECENT WAVE OF SCRUTINY OVER BIDEN’S MENTAL FITNESS FROM THE “BIDEN BOOKS AND TAPES”.
HOWEVER LEFT AND RIGHT NEWS OUTLETS ARE FRAMING THE **BIG PICTURE** OF THE STORY DIFFERENTLY.
WITH RIGHT-LEANING OUTLETS SUGGESTING THE LACK OF TRANSPARENCY OVER BIDEN’S MEDICAL RECORDS ARE PART OF A COORDINATED “COVER UP” TO CONCEAL BIDEN’S SO-CALLED DECLINE.
WHILE LEFT-LEANING OUTLETS SUGGEST TYING THE CANCER DIAGNOSIS INTO A “COVER UP” WITHOUT PROOF OF SOMEONE INTENTIONALLY HOLDING BACK MEDICAL RECORDS IS A BAD-FAITH “CONSPIRACY THEORY.”
AND THAT’S YOUR BIAS BREAKDOWN.
