Carl Cannon, the Washington Bureau Chief of RealClearPolitics, said the media is not only responsible for covering up the mental decline of President Joe Biden, but for also not investigating who was in charge during his diminished state.

Cannon spoke to RCP’s J. Peder Zane about the issue.

“As I was thinking about the real failures that have been exposed in the mainstream coverage of the Biden White House in particular, the Wall Street Journal came out with a story that showed basically what we all knew. Not only had Biden been diminished for years, but the import of their reporting was getting people on the record to say what people close to Biden did, not only to cover this up but to govern in spite of the president’s challenges,” Cannon began.

“The fact that many of our colleagues in the legacy media, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and CNN, did not pursue this story at all and, in fact, worked to dismiss it and go after those who suggested the president was diminished is a huge scandal,” Cannon continued.

“But the hope that you’ve instilled in me, Carl, is that I think there’s a chance for those same mainstream outlets — who have phenomenal reporting shops — to redeem themselves somewhat by pursuing this story of the effort to rule in Biden’s name,” he said.

“Has Biden been running the country, or have these other people? If so, who? And by what right do they have to do that? What your column explores is the role of the media in, instead of exposing this, sort of covering it up. Is that too strong a term?” he asked.

“I think they absolutely were,” Zane responded. “The greatest evidence for that is that I don’t think the Wall Street Journal story was any surprise to people who read many of the links at RealClearPolitics or stories we’ve written at RealClear Investigations. This was not a secret, that this man was diminished. Certainly, when he was forced out of the race after his bumbling and stumbling — to put it nicely — debate performances, it was clear there was a problem. He was removed from the ticket not because of his policies but because of his diminished capacity.”

“One point I didn’t make in my column is that because the media isn’t holding Democrats to account, it adds to the super-partisan nature of our politics,” Zane further stated. “If they do nothing about this, it’s very likely that Republicans may feel the need to investigate what went on. That is, by its nature, partisan and political.”

Zane added: “One of the reasons, among many, that we’re so divided is that neither party wants to hold its own to account. When the press doesn’t hold people to account, politicians jump into the breach. If we had a media doing its job, we’d be a little less divided — if they were doing it fairly. Hold Trump to account, totally, but also hold the other side.”