"Nothing brings out my skepticism," Ann Althouse wrote this morning, "like everyone using the same word." Count me double on that, especially when the "everyone" applies to media outlets in the US and around the world. 

It's as if the Journolist has never gone away! Which it clearly hasn't, as Ann's screenshot demonstrates:

The bat signal went out fast on the Journolist circuit after last night's speech, eh?

Both Ann and I wonder how exactly this "selfless" narrative could possibly be grounded in reality. Joe Biden ran for the nomination in fifty states and pushed the DNC to exclude any potential competitors that could have exposed Biden as too old and infirm for the job. Rather than admit to either, Biden insisted that he could serve another four years and had the stamina to defeat Donald Trump in an election -- even though both claims were obviously false. 

Biden didn't do that out of "selflessness." He did it out of selfishness -- to hold onto an office he'd desired for his entire political career, and because Biden insisted that only he could do the job. He didn't care what polls had begun to indicate about a rematch against Trump, nor about his myriad instances of cognitive failures in public. He wanted to keep his office, and that was that. 

That may be many things, but "selfless" it ain't. 

In fact, Biden's selfishness and obstinacy led him into the trap of his own making: the June 27 debate. He didn't have to debate Trump, and he had an easy out after the Manhattan trial ended in a conviction against Trump. All he had to do is declare that debating on TV with "a convicted felon" was beneath the dignity of the office. Instead, Biden's eternally-inflated ego convinced him that he could easily defeat Trump and demonstrate his brilliance, thus allowing him to justify his run for re-election. 

And even after the debate, Biden refused to let go. He went on a three-week tour to convince everyone that he'd only had "one bad night," and that he could still run rings around Trump. He did two major TV interviews, which Biden avoided during the primaries, and went back on the campaign trail. Biden kept insisting on hanging onto the nomination until his whole party ganged up on him and finally forced him into withdrawing. Even in his valediction last night, Biden refused to explain what specifically changed his mind between July 17 and July 21 and why specifically he couldn't run for office after winning all 50 primaries and caucuses. 

How is any of that "selfless"? Biden withdrew because his party issued unending declarations of no confidence in him, not because he'd lost his taste for power. That doesn't make him George Washington or Cincinnatus -- it makes him a more obstinate and selfish version of Lyndon Baines Johnson. 

Had one or two media outlets used the word "selfless" in headlines describing Biden's withdrawal, that would be worthy of criticism on an individual basis. The fact that so many of them used it nearly simultaneously seems too much of a coincidence to credit, especially given the history of media collusion on narrative-building. David wrote earlier about the George Washington/Cincinnatus comparisons, and I'd written ten days ago about an effort by a Dem megadonor director to have "sympathetic journalists" spin the assassination attempt on Trump as staged.

And of course, we have the Winston Smithing of Kamala Harris as the border czar currently in progress. We've written about it multiple times already, so here's Peter Savidnick in the Free Press excoriating the mainstream media for its gaslighting on Harris:

It should be noted that all this is more than a little ridiculous, since no one in the United States government is technically a czar of anything. How does one “fact-check” that which is only an informal title? 

Nevertheless, it was an informal title widely used. Here’s The New York Times in 2021: “Ms. Harris will also soon be taking over work from a departing official with years of experience. Last week, Roberta S. Jacobson, the former ambassador to Mexico chosen as Mr. Biden’s ‘border czar,’ said that she would retire from government. She said she was happy to see Ms. Harris assume the work of stemming migration from Central America.” And here’s The Washington Post that same year, describing the vice president as taking on “the lead role on the overall border and regional issue.” 

Also worth noting is that all of this “reporting” has taken place without Harris having uttered a single word about her border-related responsibilities. In other words, nothing has actually happened other than Republicans calling Harris what Axios and other media outlets once called Harris. This is, as always, not about providing readers with much-needed news or analysis—but just making sure, in case anyone is worried—that journalists are still doing their all for Team Blue. 

At this stage of things, perhaps it’s not surprising that reporters aren’t scrutinizing Harris’s record with the same zeal with which they dove into “Russiagate,” but this marks a new low. We told you she was this thing that we’re now telling you she never was. What’s the word for that again? Right. Gaslighting.

It's not just the gaslighting any longer, but the shamelessness of the gaslighting. We are watching Axios change its reporting from 2021 in real time, in a move right out of George Orwell's 1984, in order to align history with the current party line. And they don't care, as Savodnik notes, if we watch them do it. Fact checkers relying on phonied-up prior reporting now label anyone who calls Harris a border czar a purveyor of "misinformation." Their arrogance knows no bounds, and their own selfishness to create a fantasy for their own political benefit is seemingly endless.

You'd think after getting exposed as complicit in the cover-up of Joe Biden's cognitive infirmities that the mainstream media might show some contrition. Instead, they're doubling down on narrative journalism and gaslighting. And they may have to quadruple down to get Kamala Harris across the finish line -- and if they can do it, they will. 

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