Donald Trump’s early days Press conference On Tuesday, Fox News’ Peter Doucy asked a question that certainly baffled those who shunned social media for Labor Day.
“How did you find yourself dead over the weekend?” Doucy told the president.
Doucy had mentioned speculation about Trump’s health that had spread online over the long Labor Day weekend, partially promoted by the relative absence of the president for several days. The incident updated questions about how journalists should deal with the sensitive question of how healthy the aging leaders of the free world are in fact for different presidents.
Trump said he was more active than it was publicly revealed and criticised the media. “It’s fake news – it’s so fake,” he said. “That’s why there’s little reliability in the media.”
It’s a familiar issue for news media and two aged presidents.
A year ago, now 82-year-old President Joe Biden abandoned his re-election efforts after a confused performance that halted in a debate with Trump. Journalists who covered the White House faced the attack Because it’s not done enough Investigating Biden’s health and condition.
Trump turned 79 in June. The oldest person to be appointed As president. Photos showing him having a bruise in his hand and apparent swelling in his legs circulated online recently, similar to false clips in public places, including misrepresented Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer last month as “Christie.”
None of these are evidence of serious illness.
Trump said the White House I’ve been diagnosed and Chronic vein deficiencythat is, the veins in the legs cannot properly return blood to the heart, and they pool in the lower limbs. This is quite common for older people.
As far as bruises go, spokesman Caroline Leavitt said it was due to “frequent hand shakes and aspirin use.” A simple bruise There are generally several relatively benign causes, including the side effects of old age and the blood thinners.
In addition to creating spikes for online activity through sites such as X, Facebook and Tiktok, speculating stories about Trump’s health have recently appeared in outlets such as the New York Post, People, Rolling Stories, Raw Stories, and Breitbart.
But outlets like The New York Times, The Associated Press, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and others did not write or discuss it, at least before it was announced at Trump’s press conference.
“Trump is dead” was popular on social media
On CNN on Tuesday morning, Anchor Audi Cornish had a brief discussion on the topic. “At one point, the term ‘Trump is dead’ was trending on social media,” Cornish said. “It’s not true,” she noted one of Trump’s social media posts from Labor Day when she wrote, “I’ll never feel better in my life.”
At conservative outlet Newsmax, anchor Rick Leventhull read a series of social media messages on the issue. “The left didn’t hesitate to send social media into the president’s way,” he said.
After Trump’s 50-minute oval office appearance aired fully on Fox News, network anchor Martha McCollum laughed at the mention of the issue. “Biden had been taking action for days or weeks,” she said.
Trump has tried to issue the condition of his predecessor, both before and after voters returned him to president. In June, Trump ordered an investigation Using Biden Autopen The president’s signature and whether his aides intentionally protected the public from evidence of Biden’s physical and mental decline.
To do this, former NBC’s “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd said on a podcast on Tuesday that Trump and his team would only blame the way the president’s health became a problem. “I think they’re susceptible to the effects of a feeding frenzy,” he said.
But beyond critics, news outlets, like Biden, face serious questions about how they handle the story. The physical signs pointed out online should trigger serious investigations into the president’s health. Some critics like historian Garrett Graf said they were confused that many in the media didn’t treat it like a news article.
What are the fair games covered by news media?
“An evidence-based assessment of the president’s health is an absolute fair game,” he said. Bill GruskinProfessor of Journalism at Columbia University. These include observations that make the president bruised or fall asleep at meetings, and analysis of what medicines the president is taking and why.
“Likewise, radio silence from well-known office holders, especially those that frequently appear in the media, is a valuable thing journalists report,” says Grueskin. “I don’t think news organizations need to make public as ‘everyone talking about XYZ on social media.’
The issue of Biden’s health coverage was widely discussed last year and was renewed this spring with the publication of “Original Singh: President Biden’s Decline, Cover-up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” by journalists Jake Tupper and Alex Thompson.
Considering all of that, the graph I wrote it on the Substack Post “You’d think reporters are now falling to themselves to dig deeper. Obviously there’s enough smoke to at least ensure a major outlet that investigates whether there’s fire or not.”
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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment on the AP. Follow him in http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
