"Underreported"? The Democrats' media branch played a far more active role than merely turning its eyes aside from the ongoing trainwreck

Biden’s Decline Wasn’t ‘Underreported’—It Was Covered Up

From the very start of the basement campaign of 2020, corporate media lied about Biden’s unfitness for office. A “reemergence of a childhood stutter” was used to explain hs mumbling, incoherent ramblings, “unexpected boxes” caused him to fall off podiums and stumble down steps, and when the actual video’s proved too damning to ignore, they were falsely dismissed as doctored. Yet suddenly, these same flying monkeys want to “confess” to not seeing the obvious. It’s not unreasonable to question their sincerity here.

… {d]uring a year-end panel, Major Garrett asked about the year’s “undercovered or underreported” stories, and CBS News legal correspondent Jan Crawford acknowledged that major media outlets significantly downplayed Biden’s cognitive decline.

“Undercovered and underreported, that would be, to me, Joe Biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable in the televised debate,” she said, without hesitating.

She means no longer deniable, “despite our best efforts over the past four years”. “Gambling! There was gambling going on in the casino!”

“And it's starting to emerge now that his advisers kind of managed his limitations—which has been reported in The Wall Street Journal—for four years,” Crawford continued. “And yet he insisted that he could still run for president.”

….

“We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years which could have led to a primary for the Democrats,” Crawford lamented.

No, honey, you should have more forcefully questioned whether he was fit to serve those first four years. Your only regret over your lack of journalist integrity — as oxymoronic as that term is — is that your coverup proved impossible to maintain, and that allowed Trump to return to office.

Powerline’s John Hinderaker is not impressed by this sudden emergence of mea culpas* from the nedia branch:

….Biden has been exactly like this for years. His incapacity has been obvious to anyone who paid attention.

The pretense that he suffered a precipitous decline in recent months may be absurd, but it is necessary. Without the myth of a late-term decline, the national press, the White House and Congressional Democrats would have no plausible defense to the charge that they sacrificed national security and well-being for partisan advantage.

PJ Media’s Matt Margolis has it exactly right: it’s all about getting ready for a renewed assault on Trump

I’ve said before we shouldn’t fall for this mea culpa. By admitting now that they should have covered Biden’s cognitive decline more aggressively, they’re merely setting the stage to wage future attacks on Donald Trump’s mental fitness in his second term. It’s not like they haven’t tried to push the narrative that Trump is “too old” or cognitively impaired before. The liberal media questioned Trump’s mental health during his first term without any reason to, and then, during the campaign, they countered questions about Biden’s cognitive health by questioning Trump’s.

This pivot also serves to rewrite history, allowing the media to obscure their failures in vetting Biden during the 2020 election, when there were plenty of signs that he wasn’t physically or mentally capable of handling the presidency. Instead of taking responsibility for covering up his decline, they’re now framing themselves as having learned their lesson just in time for Trump to take office, hoping the public won’t remember how they spent years gaslighting voters in order to stop Trump from returning to office.

*(A totally irrelevant, but fun discussion of how to pluralize mea culpa can be found here.)