There was a running joke after President Donald Trump appeared in public after internet ghouls buzzed about his supposed untimely demise. The Associated Press sent out an X post with video proof of life accompanied by the text, “Trump says social media conspiracies about his death were wrong.” Various online wags, in homage to how the president is often covered by the legacy media, quipped, “Trump claims without evidence.”
But there was a subtle difference in the way much of the media covered the Trump rumors and similar stories that spread on social media about former President Joe Biden. An initial New York Times headline about the Trump nonsense was, “President Trump is alive. The internet was convinced otherwise.” Contrast this with “The far right spreads baseless claims about Biden’s whereabouts” during one of the former president’s bouts with COVID-19.
Neither headline is inaccurate or irresponsible. But speculation about Trump’s health is framed as some innocent internet tomfoolery, whereas Biden’s honor needs to be defended from malicious conservative — far right, even — political actors.
The stories themselves differ in this same way. The New York Times begins by laying out why internet sleuths thought the president was dead in the first place: “President Trump had nothing on his public schedule for three days last week. He is often sporting a large, purple bruise on his right hand, which he often slathers with makeup. His ankles are swollen. He is the oldest person to be elected president.”
Here’s the lede of the comparable Biden story: “Many conspiracy theorists and far-right commentators are spreading doubts that President Biden is alive after he posted a letter on Sunday resigning from his presidential campaign.”
The Trump buzz happened after he hosted a Cabinet meeting that was open to the press for more than three hours, something unheard of for Biden, and gave an hourlong interview to a media outlet. The Biden rumors were after he dropped out of the presidential race despite weeks of insisting he would not do so, without a public speech or appearance until days later, following a disastrous debate performance that made even Democrats doubt the octogenarian was still up to the job.
Both rumors were false and irresponsible. The tone of the Trump coverage was often different (an NBC News story almost implied he deserved the rumors).
Moreover, the Biden fearmongers were characterized as “conspiracy theorists and far-right commentators,” while those prematurely burying Trump are “influencers with legions of followers” and “anonymous critics.” In fact, they are the same kinds of people on the Left as those who spread conspiracy theories about Biden on the Right. They should have been described as such.
What really takes the cake is former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, now an MSNBC commentator (a network that is also on a death watch), jumping on this story after her central role in covering for Biden.
“We went from Trump saying he hadn’t heard about the rumors of his death to Trump saying he did hear about them from reports,” she said. “You can’t make this stuff up sometimes. And look, we may never know why Donald Trump suddenly spent a week hiding entirely from the American public.”
You can’t make this stuff up, indeed.
Trump, like Biden, is an elderly president whose health should be covered rigorously. Too bad that so many of those tasked with doing so lit their credibility on fire under Biden.
