Joe Biden the Man Interrupts Joe Biden the Narrative

The news media’s favorite story to cover is how the news media covers a story. This ingrained preference is perfectly fine with the wider media ecosystem whose favorite thing to cover about the news media is how they cover the news media covering the news media. The fancy scientific term for such things is symbiotic — denoting a mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups. The harsher term would be incestuous — excessively or improperly intimate or exclusive.

The modern term is content. And content, in the year of our Lord 2025, is the king of all things media.

For weeks now, the socio-political interwebs, news media, and social media have been padding out all their non-Donald Trump political content with a rehashing of former President Joe Biden’s fall from political grace. Specifically, a massive multiplayer role-playing game of “what did you know, and when did you know it” around Biden’s diminished capacity and advancing age. While everyone saw what happened during THAT 2024 presidential debate compared to the previous 40+ years of public tape on Joe Biden, the speculation and accusations of a coverup after the on-camera debacle went from internet whispers to full throated roars. Biden soon thereafter stepped aside from the race. President Trump subsequently won the election, with various opinions on the role Biden played in that result.

The recent flare-up of the debate centers around the book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. The criticism of the book’s authors was almost immediate. Tapper especially, as one of the moderators of THAT debate, has taken fire from all sides. Who is he, the criticism goes, to ask “what did you know, and when did you know it” when we, the public, should be asking you, Jake Tapper, “what did you know, and when did you know it?” Talking head montages of folks defending then-President Biden go viral, along with receipts from folks who were shouted down for raising the issue of Biden’s then-record setting age for a president in the first place. Including Tapper himself from his position on CNN. The increase in furor necessitated, at least to the same team accused of covering for him, Joe Biden to do some counter narrative media. Notably, these appearances were to be his first real outings since the election and inauguration. Including one on The View that went particularly poorly for the former president and reinforced all the questions such a press tour was designed to answer.

The interwebs are taking all of this with measured response and mature deliberation free from political priors and continuities of clicks… No, of course they aren’t. Content is king, and measured opinions will not be usurping the crown anytime soon. The vast fields of facts that lay ready for harvest but lack for workers are being bypassed in favor of riding the painted horses of the carousel of conspiracy theories. That keeps the news media story going. That keeps the books selling. That keeps the talking heads talking. That keeps the viral video and algorithm-assuaged postings posting. From the Sunday morning shows to social media posts, plenty of tinder remained for the bonfire of Biden’s vanity in holding on to power when he clearly shouldn’t have.

And then on Sunday afternoon the official office of the former president released this statement:

Taking the statement on its face, this is horrible news. Cancer does not care who you are. The only initial, human response to such a statement is hoping for the former president’s recovery and thoughts & prayers for him and his family. That is how most folks will react to various degrees. Taken in the context of recent events, the likelihood Biden’s condition has been known for a while and the release of the information was done just now for more than just public knowledge is a fair thing to be skeptical of. If this announcement comes off as “ok, folks, he’s sick and old and he’s done with public politics now” it is the Biden team’s own fault. Joe Biden the man deserves empathy. Joe Biden the brand cannot be trusted.

Meanwhile, in the realm subjugated to King Content, the conspiracy theories will really get cranked up. “What did you know, and when did you know it” will now include everyone with a Twitter account becoming specialized oncologists and experts on the urinary symptoms of a man they only care about insofar as he can drive views and clicks. Joe Biden the man might have cancer, but Joe Biden the driver of narratives has plenty of work still to do.

The underlying issues to all this hot mess — the fitness of the president, the trust of the American people in their government, and the news media that is supposed to report on such things — is vitally important. Especially with former President Biden’s successor to the White House eclipsing his record for oldest serving president ever. Serious adults would keep receipts on this episode of President Biden’s fitness, seeing as President Donald Trump — like Biden — has decades of video on how he talks and acts and is clearly not the same as the man who came down the golden escalator. Folks that think time and tides are going to pass Trumpism by are beating against an undefeated foe in time.

President Biden and his time deserve intense scrutiny and criticism for any and all efforts to conceal Joe Biden the man’s decline for the purposes of extending Joe Biden the presidency. Many folks from politics, punditry, media, and the politically ate-up masses aided and abetted that effort. They deserve criticism as well, especially those profiting and using the whole sad episode for content now. President Trump’s laughably sanitized fitness reports listing him at 224 pounds while being assisted by the most dedicated media machine of the modern era does not inspire confidence that any issues with 47’s health will be any more transparent than 46’s was. Donald Trump the man, if God forbid something healthwise befalls him, deserves empathy. Donald Trump the brand absolutely cannot be trusted.

Is there an element of the Joe Biden team waving the white flag publicly with the disclosure of the former president’s cancer, signaling the end of his public-facing career coming off unsuccessful forays into media? Probably. Joe Biden the man needs to set all other things aside and deal with his health while spending time with his family. The evidence we have indicates he should probably have done so much sooner than this. But politics is a hell of a drug.

The wider application of weeks of Joe Biden rehash is how much of the news cycle depends on voluntary participation. If Joe Biden is going to be criticized for staying in the game past when he shouldn’t have, with plenty of validity to the accusation, perhaps now is a good time to review the far lower stakes of feeding the media content machines with stories that really mattered the first time, but probably don’t the ninth time. Or the tenth version. Or the eleventh remix with twelve talking heads on the panel discussion. Or at least, after the first few times and the facts are known or suspected, you don’t need entire books written about them and press tours promoting them.

Content might be king of our self-imposed media realm, but when matters of life and death like cancer pierce through the narrative news cycle, it is a good time to press pause. None of us are getting out of this alive, all of our days are numbered, everyone is going to be past tense sometime in the all-too-soon future. Maybe we can adjust our political and media intake accordingly. Maybe that will adjust our politics somewhat for the better. And then maybe, just maybe, we stop putting ourselves and our country in this kind of position in the first place.