How glad I am that Trump isn’t in office. “Can you imagine how HE’D have handled the Afghanistan pullout?” Boy, do I! He’d have attacked the news media for reporting accurately about it, rather than improving his performance. Remember when we all agreed that Trump was a fascist, and a jerk, and a complete piece of garbage for attacking “the fake news” and “the lying news media” (Hitler supporters did the same thing, calling them “the Luegenpresse,” the “lying press”), and making up sneering, denigrating nicknames for journalists? That was, we on the Left all agreed, fascism in development.
I’m so glad that when news reports came out over the last few weeks, showing chaotic, horrifying scenes of the evacuation of Kabul, Biden never tweeted “fake news!” or other attacks urging people to attack journalists about it. Instead, he simply got off the dime, and improved his performance. Before, he’d only gotten out a couple of thousand of those 88,000-some-odd estimated (according to Matt Zeller of No One Left Behind, an aid organization) Afghanis and their families who served our country and saved our troops (and who are now threatened with murder), until last week. But SINCE the news did their duty and showed us what was happening, and since the public outcry followed, by all accounts, he’s gotten it in gear, and is finally starting to evacuate far more of them. So it’s good that the news media showed us that.
Yes, we all get rankled when we feel he’s unfairly criticized. But unless you can actually name something incorrect the news has said (in which case, let us all know, along with the station or paper who said it), that’s just the press doing their job, I’m sure you’ll agree. Let’s follow Biden’s example! Let’s not start assembling howling mobs to attack the press, unless you can name anything they’re knowingly lying about or have gotten incorrect. So sure, get annoyed at them, or have your feelings hurt by them, but I’m sure you’ll all agree, we don’t want to sink to Trumpers’ level and attack them. Should Biden start holding rallies where he leads people in booing “the lying mainstream media”? Should he start calling them sneering nicknames like “Little Katie Tur”? I’m sure no leftist worthy of the name would say so, I’m sure you’ll all agree.
The Nazis, Trumpers, and Kim Jong Un were always horrible for (among other things) their intimidation of the press simply for doing their jobs and printing things that made the Dear Leader look bad. As Democrats, as people against fascism and Nazism, and as people against Trumpism, we know where that leads. We are strong enough, and Biden is strong enough, to take some criticism like an adult. He wouldn’t have taken the job if he was too weak of character to take that without intimidating the free press. We shouldn’t be that weak either.
I applaud Biden for letting the free press do its job, even when it makes him look bad, and taking their factual criticism as a spur to do better. I encourage him to keep bringing those Afghanis who helped us home. If he gets 78,000 out of those 88,000 estimated to be gotten out, then the news will rightly be calling this a great success of a turnaround, and so will I. I encourage him to keep getting them out, and improving as needed. And I am glad we on the Left do not stand for censoring or intimidating or attacking the press.