Fox News Calls Out Media’s Doting Praise of Biden on Russia for Nothing

Nicholas Fondacaro June 13th, 2021
With President Biden in Europe for his first overseas diplomatic mission to the G7 summit, the liberal media have been tripping over themselves to put out doting the reports that glorify the pointless and empty spectacle and overtures. Touching on this fact Sunday, Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzz highlighted a recent Time magazine cover that touted Biden for standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin despite the fact he had arguably done nothing of substance so far.
Speaking to guest Ben Domenech, co-founder of The Federalist, anchor Howard Kurtz called out Time’s double standard on how they depicted former President Trump on their covers.
“We see Biden in the aviator glasses looking kind of cool. And let’s contrast with one of many Time covers about President Trump, he was always depicted as kind of an orange blob. The headline of this week’s issue is ‘Biden is taking on Putin,’” he said.
Kurtz then noted that Time gifted Biden that flattering cover despite him not really doing anything to deserve it:

But, as you were starting to talk about earlier, I mean, he hasn’t done much to take on Vladimir Putin, despite the cyber hacking, despite the fact that the opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been jailed and yet he gets this sort of I’m taking on Putin cover.

“This is just ridiculous,” Domenech declared about Time’s cover as he recalled how Biden had waived sanctions that kept Russia from completing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. “The fact is that the very biggest decision that he’s made thus far has been something that the Russians wanted and that our European allies have been in real tension with us about regarding this pipeline decision.”

As NewsBusters reported almost a month ago, the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) had ignored Biden lifting the sanctions that kept the pipeline from being completed.

Domenech went on to recall how Trump subverted the media’s narrative about him by supporting out allies that opposed Russia militarily:

And I think that when you actually look back at the coverage that President Trump received when it came to a lot of the decisions that he made, he was actually much more willing to send weapons to our allies in Europe, much more willing to stand up against Russian interests in numerous different indications around the world. And I think that that actually was based on pragmatic concerns, policy concerns that were echoed by people like Mike Pompeo and others regarding the Middle East and other interest that we have.

“So, my point is just I don’t think this coverage is serious. I don’t think that it’s actually engaging with what’s really going on and I think that Putin is looking forward to running circles around Joe Biden, not just now but in the future,” he concluded on the issue.

The transcript is below, click “expand” to read:

Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzz
June 13, 2021
11:05:40 a.m. Eastern

HOWARD KURTZ: Let me put up, Ben, the cover of this week’s Time magazine. We see Biden in the aviator glasses looking kind of cool. And let’s contrast with one of many Time covers about President Trump, he was always depicted as kind of an orange blob. The headline of this week’s issue is “Biden is taking on Putin.”

But, as you were starting to talk about earlier, I mean, he hasn’t done much to take on Vladimir Putin, despite the cyber hacking, despite the fact that the opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been jailed and yet he gets this sort of I’m taking on Putin cover.

BEN DOMENECH: This is just ridiculous. The fact is that the very biggest decision that he’s made thus far has been something that the Russians wanted and that our European allies have been in real tension with us about regarding this pipeline decision. You’ve had numerous events happen in Russia domestically. You made reference to Alexei Navalny and his group.

But it ought to have America standing by our interests in terms of making sure that there’s more freedom within Russia, making sure that there’s more freedom around the world. And yet standing up to a dictator now just amounts to putting out press releases. If that’s the merit that we’re supposed to be evaluate things on, then it’s really deeply silly. It doesn’t actually equate to any real results.

And I think that when you actually look back at the coverage that President Trump received when it came to a lot of the decisions that he made, he was actually much more willing to send weapons to our allies in Europe, much more willing to stand up against Russian interests in numerous different indications around the world. And I think that that actually was based on pragmatic concerns, policy concerns that were echoed by people like Mike Pompeo and others regarding the Middle East and other interest that we have.

So, my point is just I don’t think this coverage is serious. I don’t think that it’s actually engaging with what’s really going on and I think that Putin is looking forward to running circles around Joe Biden, not just now but in the future.

KURTZ: Well, Biden told reporters last hour when asked why he plans to hold a solo news conference after meeting the Russian leader in Geneva, “I don’t want to be diverted by did they shake hands, who talked the most.” Interesting.