Citing liberal “misinformation” monitor Media Matters for America, President Joe Biden’s campaign is accusing broadcast and cable networks of giving Republican front-runner Donald Trump “a pass” on his extremist statements and age while hammering the incumbent over his age and gaffes.
That came in an email to reporters email early Tuesday (Nov. 7) from the campaign that ticked off citations from Media Matters of the extremist views it, and by reference, candidate Biden, are saying network and cable news outlets are not reporting, or giving “scant coverage to.”
The Biden campaign said in the email: “When Trump stated that 'liberal Jews' were voting to ‘destroy America & Israel’ in a Truth Social post during the Rosh Hashana holiday — which advocate groups called out as incendiary and playing into antisemitic tropes — broadcast news failed to mention the statement in the following two weeks. MSNBC covered Trump’s post for 9 minutes, CNN for just over 3 minutes, and Fox ignored it."
When Trump said the terrorist group Hezbollah was “very smart” only days after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, the campaign said, “[t]he comment received just over 1 minute of coverage combined on broadcast channels ABC and NBC, with CBS failing to mention it. CNN devoted 14 minutes to the comment, Fox News 17 minutes, and MSNBC about 28 minutes (more than half of which came from Morning Joe).”
As to Biden’s age, the campaign said that while cable news provides “ample time” to coverage of the president’s age, it “largely ignores Trump’s.” Biden is 80; Trump is 77.
The campaign said that as the 2024 race heats up, “TV news outlets must highlight Trump’s extremism and inform viewers of the Republican front-runner’s unpopular beliefs.”
