With democracy on the ballot, the mainstream press must change its ways | Margaret Sullivan

US news organizations have turned Biden's age into a scandal and continue to cover Trump as an entertaining side show

Christiane Amanpour has reported all over the world, so she recognizes a democracy on the brink when she sees one.

Last week, as she celebrated her 40 years at CNN, she issued a challenge to her fellow journalists in the US by describing how she would cover US politics as a foreign correspondent.

News organizations have turned Biden's age (granted, a legitimate concern) into the equivalent of a scandal. In story after story, headline after headline, they emphasize not his administration's accomplishments, but the fact that he's 80. A New York Times headline during his recent diplomatic mission to Asia epitomized this, turning the president's joke about jet lag into an impression of a doddering fool: It is evening, isn't it?' An 80-Year-Old President's Whirlwind Trip." Ian Millhiser of Vox nailed the problem: I worry the Biden is old' coverage is starting to take on the same character as the 2016 But Her Emails coverage - find something that is genuinely suboptimal about the Democratic candidate and dwell on it endlessly to balance' coverage of the criminal in charge of the GOP."

The evidence-free Biden impeachment efforts in the House of Representatives are presented to news consumers without sufficient context. In the first round of headlines last week, most news outlets simply reported what speaker Kevin McCarthy was doing as if it were completely legitimate - the result of his likely high crimes and misdemeanors. The Washington Post presented it seriously: Kevin McCarthy directs House committees to open formal Biden impeachment inquiries," adding in a credulous line: The inquiry will center on whether President Biden benefited from his son's business dealings ... " No hint of what is really happening here. In this case, the New York Times was a welcome exception: McCarthy, Facing an Ouster and a Shutdown, Orders an Impeachment Inquiry." That's more like it.

Trump continues to be covered mostly as an entertaining side show - his mug shot! His latest insults! - not a perilous threat to democracy, despite four indictments and 91 charges against him, and despite his own clear statements that his re-election would bring extreme anti-democratic results; he would replace public servants with the cronies who'll do his bidding. We will look back on this and wish more people had understood that Biden is our bulwark of democratic freedoms and the alternative is worse than most Americans can imagine," commented Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen, and an expert in authoritarian regimes.