RUTHFULLY YOURS

By 2-to-1, Americans agree that the media covered up former President Joe Biden’s mental infirmities, and an even-larger share believe it’s “important” to hold media outlets accountable for failing to inform the public about the former president’s health problems, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows. The poll was taken before the former president was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer on May 16.

In the national online I&I/TIPP Poll of 1,400 adults taken in late April and early May, Americans were asked: “To what extent do you agree or disagree that the media covered up Joe Biden’s mental decline?”

It wasn’t close, with 56% saying they agreed either “strongly” (33%) or “somewhat” (23%), while just half that — 28% — disagreed either strongly (13%) or somewhat (15%). Another 16% were not sure. The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.7 percentage points.

It is again an issue on which there are sharp divisions among key demographics.

Politically, differences were especially sharp, with majorities of Republicans (79% agree, 15% disagree) and independents (53% agree, 30% disagree) taking the hardest line. Just 38% of Democrats agreed, while 43% disagreed.

Men and women are another big split. Men agree (64%) far more than they disagree (25%) that the media covered up Biden’s mental issues. Women are less inclined to think the media covered up Biden’s issues: 49% agree, 31% disagree.

I&I TIPP asked those who say the media covered up two other follow-up questions about Biden’s health issues. The second question: “How important is it to hold the media accountable for covering up Joe Biden’s mental decline?”

The responses unambiguously show that this subset voters hold the media responsible for failing to report Biden’s mental difficulties.

Among all respondents, 84% called it either “very” important (54%) or “somewhat” important (30%) to hold the media accountable, while only 13% described it as “not very” important (11%) or “not at all” important (2%).

There wasn’t much difference even among the political parties.

Republicans (89%), independents (81%) and Democrats (78%) showed a stunning degree of unanimity: The media failed in its job to inform the American public.

But will anything come of this? Will the media eat humble pie, or engage in serious reform? Most people don’t think so.

For the third and final question about Biden’s health problems and the media’s failure to report on them, the I&I/TIPP Poll asked those who believe that the media covered up: “Do you believe the media will ultimately be held accountable for covering up Joe Biden’s condition, or not?”

Only 37% of voters responded “yes,” while precisely half (50%) answered no and 13% responded “not sure.”

Democrats and Republicans were basically identical, with 42% of each party agreeing that the media will be held accountable and only 24% of indie voters did.

Meanwhile, the negatives for all the political parties outweighed the positives, with Dems and GOP members again tied at 47% in answering “no” to the question of whether the media would have to account for its failure, while a hefty 60% of independents responded the same.

The media, it seems, have taken a serious blow to its already-damaged reputation for its failures to inform the public about Biden’s mental difficulties.

It is now an established fact that many in the mainstream media understood that Biden was cognitively impaired, but refused to report it for fear it would damage his presidential re-election bid against former President Donald Trump.

As Jason Cohen wrote last summer in the Tampa Free Press: “Despite concerns from Americans, legacy media outlets have consistently downplayed their legitimacy and criticized those who voiced them, even suggesting the narrative of incompetence stems from Russia.”

It got so bad in 2024 that Biden didn’t recognize actor and Democratic activist George Clooney at an election fundraiser, despite knowing him for over two decades. And Clooney wasn’t the only one, according to “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson.

The book by Tapper and Thompson extensively details Biden’s growing mental issues during his only term in office, and the media’s failure to report the news.

In fact, signs of Biden’s growing mental problems were actually apparent during the 2020 presidential campaign, as he ran against Trump by staying locked down and almost entirely off the political hustings for the entire year. Sporadic video appearances were all voters got.

With teleprompters and aides feeding him information, Biden was able to pretend he was “sharp as a tack,” as some later put it. But plainly, he wasn’t. And mainstream journalists, whose liberal bias has been on display during Trump’s two terms, refused to report this, as The Hill reported.

“Any study that you ever see about who reporters vote for, they vote for Democrats much more than Republicans,” noted CNN’s Chris Cillizza. “And I think what was going on here is, I think it was an inherent and sort of unconscious bias more than a conscious bias. But I think the reporters covering this White House were too willing to take the Biden team’s word for it . . . They were too credulous.”

Some, like MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, have had career-changing egg on their faces for their uncorrected pro-Biden bias. Scarborough last year strongly defended Biden’s mental acuity, saying “Joe Biden is more than cogent” and calling him the “best Biden ever.” Today, Scarborough still stands by those and other comments.

The obvious Biden coverup and lies are now costing the media dearly, as they fumble to answer such questions as: If Biden wasn’t up to being president, who was in control? First Lady Jill Biden? First son and recovering drug user Hunter Biden, whom Joe called “the smartest guy I know”?

The Department of Justice is looking into who made decisions in the White House, if not Biden. At least three suspected officials who wielded Biden’s presidential “Autopen,” which signs his name to official documents, have come under suspicion, though they’ve been charged with nothing yet, according to Department of Justice official Ed Martin.

The possibility that nameless, faceless officials in the White House may have exercised presidential power on behalf of a clueless President Joe Biden is what angers many voters of all political persuasions today.

But it all began with the media covering up the truth. And now, as the I&I/TIPP Poll illustrates, Americans want the media held accountable for their transgressions.

I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.

Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.