One way you know that most journalists are Democrats is their energetic work presenting about 37 ways the Republican Party may collapse into rubble in the near future, versus their cautious beating around bushes about problems the Democratic Party may have -- but maybe they'll all vanish.
The Monday political roundtable on the "PBS NewsHour" took a few minutes to address how President Joe Biden may have a problem since young "progressives" in his party hate Israel as a deplorable pack of oppressive white supremacists. Anchor Geoff Bennett cited a Washington Post headline: "Biden's resistance to ceasefire could alienate youth voters in 2024."
The Post account noted an NBC News poll found that 70% of voters aged 18 to 34 disapprove of Biden's handling of the war, and he's struggling with Muslims, "many of whom feel he has shown a lack of sympathy for Palestinian civilians." The Democrats loved to use "Islamophobia" against Donald Trump, and now they're getting painted into a corner as the Israel-loving Islamophobes.
It's almost comical to watch PBS pundits try to explain these problems in the most milquetoast fashion. Political analyst Amy Walter claimed, "For many older voters, this is a geopolitical issue, and for younger voters, this is a human rights issue." Somehow, Israel is presented as an opponent of "human rights," and the Hamas terrorists, who indiscriminately slaughtered Israeli civilians, are the sympathetic victims.
Walter explained that younger voters use a lens "in which race and privilege and access is the main focus, versus one that is really looking at this as what's the stability in the region, who's at fault, what does it mean for the rest of the world." Israel represents white privilege, and the Palestinians are apparently like black people in segregated America. A ceasefire might be a temporary boost for Biden, but it's "not changing the nature of the conversation about what it means to be Palestinian."
Walter was trying to sound academic and face no questioning about how "being Palestinian" somehow justifies Oct. 7 or the years of lobbing missiles from Gaza on Israel's civilians. Anchorman Bennett wasn't questioning the Rashida Tlaib position spreading on the radical Left. You would never call this view "pro-Hamas" on PBS, but it's staunchly opposing the Israelis as the villains in this war.
Then PBS turned to NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith, who is routinely asked to reflect and re-state the White House position. She's literally a spokesperson for Biden. Bennett asked, "Tam, how does the White House see it? ... President Biden, the White House, I'm told, feels that he doesn't always get the credit for doing the work, because he doesn't do the work in a way that's properly politically theatrical."
PBS worried about Biden not receiving "credit" on the war in Israel, like this dreadful war doesn't make him look like a geopolitical boob. No, the problem is framed as Biden isn't "properly theatrical," like Barack Obama. That would require engaging with the press, which the White House clearly finds terrifying.
Call her Tamara Jean-Pierre Keith as she explained Biden "very much does not make a public show of things until after it's done. And then he tries to claim credit, like with all of his economic accomplishments. And then he can't get the credit. And it's already baked in. And that's just the story of Joe Biden."
Keith can state with a straight face that Biden has "economic accomplishments." PBS would never describe Republicans as having any "economic accomplishments," but Biden's Jimmy Carter rerun isn't getting enough credit. Why must conservative taxpayers involuntarily fund this Democrat echo chamber?
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