‘Dementia Watch’: Brian Stelter More Upset By Trump’s Vanishing Transcripts Than Biden’s Vacant Presidency
At first glance on Friday, when the far-left propaganda aggregator Drudge Report posted the words “Dementia Watch” in screaming red letters, readers may have thought it was finally talking about former President Bumbling Joe Biden. But no. Drudge has turned its “concern” to President Donald Trump, showcasing three headlines to make the case that Trump, perhaps the sharpest president in modern times, is actually losing his marbles.
They wish.
Drudge linked to an opinion column by Trump-hating writer Rex Huppke, who asks if Trump is in mental decline. Huppke claims Biden was keen to the end of his term; he just wasn’t a strong orator, and his “poor oratorical skills” plus his stutter made “his delivery seem addled.”
Drudge highlighted a People magazine article by Meredith Kile that examines Trump misspeaking about Biden’s cancer. Biden has stage 4 prostate cancer with a Gleason score of 9 (on a scale of 6 to 10). Trump misspoke and said Biden has stage 9 cancer. Quickly, take away his access to the nuclear codes! Kile was paid to write, and People actually published, an entire story on this.
And in a reach not even Stretch Armstrong could make, Drudge used a dumb story by CNN’s Brian Stelter that is not about Trump’s wit at all.
Stelter complains about how “the Trump White House, which touts itself as ‘the most transparent’ administration in history, has removed a database of official transcripts documenting President Donald Trump’s announcements and appearances.”
Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Stelter, “The president’s remarks are live on the website for every person in the world, including journalists, to access and watch for themselves. The Trump White House is the most transparent in history.”
Stelter even links to the videos of Trump’s remarks. Videos are the truest record of an event. But that is not transparent enough for Stelter.
Stelter wants searchable, written text. As any seasoned journalist will tell you, just hit “Control F” on your keyboard, and a search box comes up. Try searching the word “lazy.” Transcripts are nice to have, but they are not owed, and they are not the measure of transparency.
Note to Drudge Report: This is not a dementia issue. Unless Stelter forgot how to be a “reporter.”
To cover the White House back in the olden days, reporters had to get out of their jammies, strap on some shoes, find parking in D.C., get access to the White House, show up on time, and record or even write notes on paper, drive back to the office, decipher their own chicken scratch, and write a story. No one was handing out transcripts.
Today reporters don’t have to live in D.C. to cover the president. They can light a candle at their home desk, put peanut butter on their toes for the dog to lick off, pull up yesterday’s Oval Office meeting video, and write something when they are good and ready.
I mean, no socks required to do this work. It has gotten lazier in every way.
Except for reporters trying to cover everything Trump does. Trump is in the public eye daily. He makes news on the weekends and late at night. He has not spent a day drooling under an umbrella on a Delaware beach.
By contrast, Biden did not hold a press conference until his 65th day in office. Stelter mentions that Biden’s White House changed a transcript by removing the true record of Biden calling Trump supporters “garbage,” saying transcripts can be used to hold presidents accountable. Sure. If they are accurate.
Transparency is not about what media — print, video, audio — is being used, it is about easy access to accurate records and the freedom to ask questions and get answers. It was tougher to cover Biden because he had layers of lying gatekeepers running interference. Biden was often kept hidden in his hovel and struggled to speak when let out. His was a tightly controlled presidency of one-way conversations, press releases written by messengers, and the ultimate deflection, “President Biden is not taking questions today.”
You never see Trump say that.
The NFL, America’s premier sports league, goes to the replay video when it wants to make a precise call. There is nothing more accountable than video. The fact that Trump offers an unvarnished recording of what he is doing on the daily, even when he misspeaks like a human, is about as transparent as it gets.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
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