Media double standard? Comparing questions posed to Joe Biden and President Trump
Are reporters being fair and balanced to both presidential nominees? Reaction from Neil Cavuto's media panel on 'Your World.'
Fox News host Neil Cavuto took his fellow media members to task Friday over their seemingly friendly questioning of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at an earlier news conference, insisting that both Biden and President Trump receive equal scrutiny.
"You know, I have often said on this show, and I have a lot of critics on both sides ... I just call balls and strikes," the "Your World" host said. "I look at what’s right when I hear something out of a candidate. I look at what’s wrong when I hear something out of a candidate, regardless of the candidate.
"So I think that both men, especially when you are running for the highest office in the land, should be held under intensive scrutiny. I did not see that today with Joe Biden when it came to the press," he said.
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The host then played several clips from the Biden news conference, including one in which Atlantic reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere asked the former vice president what Trump's reported comments denigrating fallen World War I soldiers "say about President Trump's soul."
"Let me cut to the upshot there," Cavuto said. "What they're essentially saying is, 'Can you again confirm for us why you think the president is such a jerk given some of these jerky things that he's said and argued?'
"That's not fair and balanced. That's not doing your job."
Cavuto then played a clip of what he described as "routine" treatment given Trump by the White House press corps.
"I don’t know. I have no fans in the White House, I have no fans on a lot of sides, but man oh man, all I’m saying here .. is let's be fair to everyone," Cavuto said. "If you are going to criticize someone, make sure you clarify that and make sure you're very focused on that and conversely if something good is happening make sure you get to that.
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"But the same should apply to both sides. If you are going to have Joe Biden talking about how he would do things economically differently or how, for example, he was on top of [the coronavirus] from the very beginning when the facts are he wasn’t, call him on it. Call both on it, but treat both the same way.
"If you want to be kind and gentle to both [sides], that's your strategy, [to be] kind and gentle to both. But if you want to be a jerk to one side versus the other side, that’s not right. That’s not fair. That’s not balanced, and that shouldn’t be."