Fox News “Media Buzz” host Howard Kurtz is documenting the deep media divide between two Pennsylvania speeches made by President Joe Biden last week.
On Sunday, Kurtz said Biden’s primetime speech drew media praise and condemnation. Kurtz outlined responses from Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, which all varied in tone.
Kurtz noted that many broadcast networks refused to carry Biden’s speech which took place in Philadelphia.
Federalist reporter Emily Jashinsky said Biden failed to make the distinction between mainstream Republicans and “MAGA” Republicans.
“If you are truly talking about a fringe, you need to be able to make those distinctions very clearly,” said Jashinsky. “I think he struggled with that (distinction), I think he struggled with the speech, he struggled all week.”
Kurtz asked Democratic strategist Laura Fink what she thought about the criticism media conservatives leveled against Biden who they alleged abandoned his campaign promise to unify the country.
“We’re not talking about half the country as [Sean] Hannity suggested when you do the numbers and math on the polling,” said Fink. “We are talking about people that rejected the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Now, while that is a significant number of Republicans, that’s about 15% of the country.”
Fink added that Biden’s previous calls for unity have been “mischaracterized” because the focus has been on MAGA Republicans.
Jashinsky said the mischaracterization is the fault of the Biden administration because he wasn’t clear enough in last week’s speeches whether he was referring to fringe groups of mainstream Republicans.
“There’s a lot of support from Donald Trump in this country,” she said. “When you are not being clear about who you are talking about, that’s a huge problem.”
Kurtz added that there are journalists who welcome the MAGA narrative because they agree with it.
