Complicity or Complacency?
With the spate of White House ‘tell-alls” decrying the deteriorated health of former President Joe Biden, the more compelling question is why wasn’t much of this detected and disclosed by the WHPress Corps when it was happening.
Sure.. we all saw the President’s awkward gait; and his tumble up the steps of AF1 and down on the stage at the Air Force Academy; we all were witness to the debate debacle.
But – as a former member of the press corps in the days of CBS’ Dan Rather and ABC’s Sam Donaldson, I don’t think those correspondents would have been so forgiving to ignore the patently evident signs of physical and mental deterioration.
Mark Barbaks column (reposted here) makes the case that hiding presidential illnesses is not a new phenomenon. What seems disingenuous now are the reporters who covered the WH expressing surprise at just how bad things really were.
In a business which is based on ardent competition, where currying sources is the #1 priority, and in an era where there are more platforms and media companies dueling for scoops, was the ignorance of this president’s poor health due to the complicity of WH reporters choosing silence in order not to rock the boat, or not to jeopardize their standing in the WH Press Office, or due to laziness and complacency?
Reporters, anchors, hosts and pundits who postulate today but who said nothing while the story was actually happening are disappointing and doing a dishonor to their profession.
petershaplenproductions.com 
You have to wonder what the reporters knew, what they thought they knew from what they’d seen and heard.
Did they pretend they didn’t see or hear so they didn’t “get into trouble,” for surely that was a threat in every White House?
On the other hand, maybe reporters were traded an inside story for not reporting health secrets.
Where is the truth?