People Are Saying...

 A friend and I were talking this morning about the supposed blow-up this past week over Biden's age and mental fitness, following the release of the special counsel's report. It struck us that here was a perfect distillation of the media's tendency to create the very events that they purport to be describing. 

One breathless New York Times headline poured in after another. "The release of the special counsel's report raises new questions about..." But who is asking those questions, if not you, the reporter? "The special counsel's characterization of Biden is drawing renewed attention to..." Is it really the special counsel's report that is drawing that attention, or is it you, by talking about the special counsel's report? 

I am reminded of the discourse around the "border crisis" in the early days of Biden's presidency. The newspapers all shared versions of the same headline. "Out of control." "Scandal." "Will Biden call it a 'crisis'"? But who was calling it a crisis, if not them? Who was asking him to call it one, if not them? "Public outrage builds..." But where did that outrage come from, if not from you? 

My friend screenshotted an emblematic example. In the wake of the special counsel's report, the Times announced, "aides [...] worry that even small mistakes by President Biden will be amplified." My friend scrawled next to the image: "Amplified by whom??" 

We joked that the article should read: "Sources close to the President say that Biden's aides are terrified that there will be more New York Times stories just like this one in the weeks ahead." 

My friend compared this style of reporting to the way in which people in ordinary conversation will sometimes try out a controversial opinion by attributing it to society in general. "People are saying," they will hedge; "I'm not saying; but people are saying." 

It's an old trick—and indeed one that Francis Bacon talks about in his essay on "Cunning" (a great Renaissance guide to the arts of flattery, duplicity, and intrigue, worthy of comparison with Machiavelli). I was reminded of Bacon's advice: "In things that a man would not be seen in himself, it is a point of cunning, to borrow the name of the world; as to say, The world says, or There is a speech abroad."

A tremendous amount of news coverage of Biden's administration takes just this form. 

They don't admit: "Biden is facing renewed scrutiny of his age from us." They don't say, "Biden is now facing tough questions about his mental fitness because we are asking about it constantly and reporting on it every day as if it were a big deal." Instead, they "borrow the name of the world," as Bacon advises. They say: "There is a speech abroad." I'm not saying; but People are saying...

What should the news actually have been about last week? Oh, how about the fact that Republicans torpedoed their own border deal after getting exactly what they asked for, just because Trump told them it is more important to make Democrats look bad than to actually achieve their own purported policy goals. 

That was the real scandal of this past week. But we quickly moved past it, because this alternative one appeared. But what scandal would there have been, if the news media had not made it one? What attention would have been given to that one line in the report, if the newspapers had not drawn our eye there? To borrow a line from Brecht: "So many reports./ So many questions."