Thompson himself tweeted, in June, 2023, “Biden’s weird phrases are sometimes weaponized by the GOP to insinuate the 80-year-old president is in mental decline.”
“Some.” For sure.
To close the evening, White House Correspondents Association President Eugene Daniels delivered this, like, fire-and-brimstone lecture, declaring the organization “an example of American exceptionalism” and admonishing anyone who doesn’t submit to that claim.
This was the moment my realizations came into focus.
“Those of us who have chosen the public service of journalism … The work we do helps strengthen the fabric of our democracy … essential for democracy.”
He paused to allow a short video to play of Presidents Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama attending past dinners— in an elaborate and highly produced dig at the administration that ditched.
Having an audience with the President for this stupid dinner of medium-well filet mignon is “to remind them that a strong fourth estate is essential for democracy,” Daniels insists to the hive.
“We miss our families and significant life moments in service to this job. We care deeply about accuracy and take seriously the heavy responsibility of being stewards of the public’s trust. What we are not is the ‘opposition.’ What we are not is the ‘enemy of the people,’ and what we are not is the ‘enemy of the state.’”
Standing applause. I’m sitting there, listening, not sure if there is someone in the room who went to actual war, like, combat, to defend the Constitution. Or, like, operated underground under threat of violence. No, he’s just talking about himself and his friends with laptop jobs. Alright.
Then it occurred to me.
“The sun in the heavens,” “truth tellers,” “fascism,” “fabric of our democracy”— what? This is actually crazy.
The media isn’t biased because it’s liberal, it’s biased because it has no concept of reality. The people who make media content are incapable of separating their own self-worship from objective truth. Their egos dictate that they are so important, they decide “the truth.”
And we mock them— and they don’t get the joke because they emotionally, just, can’t. How can Trump, conservatives, mock them, mock “truth?” In their understanding of themselves, and the world, and their place in it, mocking them — or otherwise ignoring them — is heresy!
They aren’t “biased,” they are personally appalled by Trump’s insults, and incensed by their diminishing relevance.
That they can sit less than two miles away from him, declare their importance, and no one cares. The next day he’ll ban a few of them from his plane, or call them a name, and millions of people will cheer, and otherwise life will go on as normal.
That’s the big threat; it’s a threat against their vanity. That is what they can’t tolerate. The warped coverage is not political, its personal.
