The “transparency” trope

Created
Sat, 14/01/2023 - 06:00
Updated
Sat, 14/01/2023 - 06:00
David Chalian on CNN said this morning: You seem to want points from the American people that you immediately notified the archives and in turn notified the justice department when these document were found at the beginning of November, but why didn’t you notify the American people? We don’t have an answer to that question. They have no answer to the question of why they chose not to be transparent with the American people at that time. You see, they’re not accusing him of anything they’re just asking questions. It’s all about transparency, nothing more. Watching the feeding frenzy over Joe Biden’s documents super-scandal, I was reminded of how the media reacted when Hillary Clinton fainted on the campaign trail after months of conditioning by the right wing media that she was brain damaged. This is how it works: right wing media pounds on a story for months that the mainstream media eagerly devours but only reports around the edges. Then when an opening presents itself they burst forth with accusations that the official or candidate was engaged in a cover-up. It happens all the time. In the current case, it’s all about the right’s ongoing mantra about the “Biden Crime Family” the assumption being that Biden had absconded with these documents in service of his corrupt dealings with foreign countries to line his pockets. His “lack of transparency” by failing to immediately call a press conference to tell the media that they’d found the documents obviously means he was…