Margaret Brennan’s ‘Media Mind-Reading’ About Joe Biden’s Supposed Peaceful Intentions
During last night’s vice presidential debate, moderator Margaret Brennan prefaced her first question (about Israel and Iran) by saying that, “President Biden has deployed more than 40,000 US military personnel and assets to that region over the past year to try to prevent a regional war.”
“Really? Is that his motivation and goal, @margbrennan?,” Decensored News asked her on X on Wednesday. “Are you sure?”
Journalist Sam Husseini has called this “media mind-reading” — “reporting not simply on what they said, but on their alleged internal state of mind.”
“It’s a chronic problem in the media: The beliefs, motivations and intentions of certain preferred sources—usually U.S. government officials—are described matter-of-factly by the press, as though reporters had the ability to read the sources’ minds,” Sam wrote in 2004.
“By ‘reporting’ the alleged thoughts and emotions of policymakers, such accounts put the sincerity of official motives off-limits for discussion.”
Meanwhile, “the same outlets cover leaders at odds with Washington in a decidedly different manner.”
For anyone wondering: Tim Walz and JD Vance’s answers to Brennan’s question were barely distinguishable from each other:
“Would you support or oppose a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran?”
— Decensored News (@decensorednews) October 2, 2024
Walz: Oct 7… Israel's ability to be able to defend itself is absolutely fundamental…
Vance: Oct 7… It is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe, and we should support… pic.twitter.com/MxA0VxKSnE
“Genocider and genociderer,” Sam quipped on X.
