“We are going to report fully and fairly, not just on Donald Trump but also on President Joe Biden. He is a historically unpopular incumbent and the oldest man to ever hold this office. We’ve reported on both these realities extensively, and the White House has been extremely upset about it.”
That was AG Suzlberger, publisher of The New York Times, talking to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and quoted by Politico magazine. “Criticism over coverage of Biden’s low approval ratings and more especially his age has sparked disapproval both from the Biden campaign and some members of the press,” the Politico article noted. “News stories of Biden’s age gained even more traction among the press as special counsel Robert Hur wrote in his recent report … that “Biden was an elderly man with a poor memory.”
Former NYT public editor Margaret Sullivan hoped that Sulzberger would tell his editors to “cease going overboard with both coverage and commentary about Biden’s age,” and “tone it down”.
Sulzberger acknowledged that Biden’s age and the five court cases against Donald Trump were not the same but “they are both true and the public needs to know both these things. And if you are hyping up one side or downplaying the other, no side has a reason to trust you in the long run.”
With elections due in November, Biden is battling a drop in approval ratings among young voters. In December last year, an opinion poll put his approval rating at 37.7%, the lowest ever since 1948. Economic concerns top voter priorities along with disapproval of military aid spending. Even Donald Trump when he was president, enjoyed a higher approval rating of 41.7%. Currently, it seems Trump appears on track to win the presidency in November despite the array of criminal charges against him.
