The media is not on our side
We’re finding ourselves quite deep into uncharted territory. It’s the final days of what is probably the most progressive presidential administration in modern history – at the precipice of what may be one of the most regressive and conservative presidential administrations in modern history. We at least have the advantage of once defeating the Trump regime in most of the battles that mattered – but we’ve also had to face some hard realities- namely, that the political media is clearly not on our side, and right now is doing what it can to oblige Donald Trump in the name of their own access to the White House. This means we have to be extra skeptical about the overall message we’re getting from them – more so than we were back in 2017 or 2018.
Currently, a number of mainstream media outlets are condemning President Biden’s pardoning of his own son. This is of course, about optics more than anything else – and they’re not even being subtle about that. Far from pardoning a criminal accomplice of his, the president is merely using the power of the pardon to do what it was meant to do in the first place: Show that the justice system can offer chances at redemption and not just be a system meant to punish with power. Trump, of course, harbors the latter idea – and he already made this clear the last time he was president.
Anyone who tells you that Joe Biden is setting a precedent for Republicans to behave badly is someone you can and should ignore. This is all too often where the media’s hot takes lead us – and all it does is get us more angry with Democrats than we should be with Republicans – that is, when it doesn’t give the GOP a free pass on the horrible things they have and were always going to do. We can’t afford to get sidetracked as we fight in the next few months ahead – and they’ll play a big part in what damage we can avert over the next two years.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making