President Biden: Executive Order’s and the Media’s Rapture

To understand why Joe Biden bothered to issue an executive order on Friday that is 50 percent longer than the Constitution yet contains less of interest than the average iTunes user agreement, you first have to remember how our Pyongyang Press works. Biden can attract hours of fawning coverage for picking a dandelion or ordering ice cream. Biden could break four bones tumbling down Air Force One, and the headlines would be, “Biden Shows Strength Compassion, Courage, Fortitude, and Resilience in Journey through Hell and Back,” followed quickly by “Republicans Pounce on Biden Misstep.”

Every time Biden does anything, no matter how trivial, the media will be there to sing hosannas. If doing things earns him fawning coverage, he has a strong incentive to do things. Most reporters clearly didn’t bother to read the 72-point, 45-page Friday-afternoon-in-summer executive order. Their stories tend to link back not to it, but to an imposingly labeled “White House Fact Sheet,” i.e. press release, that promises America a bunch of things will happen (“save . . . money on their Internet bills,” “lower prescription drug prices”) that are merely stated goals in the executive order itself. Huge chunks of the executive order are simply reminders that given laws exist and should be enforced. In other words, this elephantine project is more or less just a campaign speech that the press is treating as actual policy.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Joe Biden

FCC

To understand why Joe Biden bothered to issue an executive order on Friday that is 50 percent longer than the Constitution yet contains less of interest than the average iTunes user agreement, you first have to remember how our Pyongyang Press works. Biden can attract hours of fawning coverage for picking a dandelion or ordering ice cream. Biden could break four bones tumbling down Air Force One, and the headlines would be, “Biden Shows Strength Compassion, Courage, Fortitude, and Resilience in Journey through Hell and Back,” followed quickly by “Republicans Pounce on Biden Misstep.”

Every time Biden does anything, no matter how trivial, the media will be there to sing hosannas. If doing things earns him fawning coverage, he has a strong incentive to do things. Most reporters clearly didn’t bother to read the 72-point, 45-page Friday-afternoon-in-summer executive order. Their stories tend to link back not to it, but to an imposingly labeled “White House Fact Sheet,” i.e. press release, that promises America a bunch of things will happen (“save . . . money on their Internet bills,” “lower prescription drug prices”) that are merely stated goals in the executive order itself. Huge chunks of the executive order are simply reminders that given laws exist and should be enforced. In other words, this elephantine project is more or less just a campaign speech that the press is treating as actual policy.