The Wall Street Journal owes its readers — and the public — better.

The business broadsheet published and hyped a story Wednesday declaring that “behind closed doors,” President Joe Biden has shown “signs of slipping.” The story questioned Biden’s mental acuity, playing into a GOP-propelled narrative that the 81-year-old president lacks the fitness to hold the nation’s highest office.

But an examination of the report reveals a glaring problem: Most of the sources reporters Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes 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 Biden’s candidacy.

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

    • Diplomjodler
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      154 months ago

      Those same people will say that their guy is completely sane and mentally healthy.

  • @Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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    204 months ago

    Back to the bullshit.

    They’re making fun of him looking for a chair behind him today. The man has arthritis. You get that as you age.

    He had a pretty good line in his speech. “The cost of the defeat of tyranny, is paid by the blood of the young and brave.” So I can see how you would get caught up in the chair thing.

    I’m sure somebody made fun of FDR and his wheelchair too.

    Anyway, bullshit hit pieces are kind of normal. Best thing to do is ignore them.

  • @jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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    84 months ago

    I noted this in the thread on the article itself:

    “according to six people told at the time about what (Mike) Johnson said had happened.”

    The sources weren’t even first hand sources. They were sources who were told what happened by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

    This NEVER should have made it to the level of reporting. It fails every single smell test.

    • FuglyDuck
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      34 months ago

      It passes the “does it smell bad enough to spread on my neighbors yard” test….

      What? Nobody likes that guy.

  • @chakan2@lemmy.world
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    -394 months ago

    We are doomed…we get to choose from two senile old men to lead us through China’s attempt to take Taiwan.

    • @OpenStars
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      74 months ago

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