The Times has indeed published several stories about Biden’s age in the wake of the Hur report—such as a piece in early March, “Majority of Biden’s 2020 Voters Now Say He’s Too Old to Be Effective,” about a Times/Siena poll. Still, voters seem to have reached the conclusion that Biden is old (perhaps even too old!) without the help of the Times—or other comparable mainstream media organizations. Coverage of Biden’s advanced age well predates the Times’ coverage or even the Hur report; recall that this was a major topic in 2023 too. And it’s hardly out of bounds. A sizable majority of voters really do think that Biden’s too old to be president, which seems wholly reasonable given that he is the oldest person—by far—to occupy the White House.
Even if Sulzberger were directing Times journalists to do dastardly hit pieces, boycotting the paper is a foolish idea. Yes, the old media ecosystem is broken and it makes sense to pursue more nontraditional ways to reach voters. (Now that he’s appeared on Stern’s show, Biden ought to wolf down wings on Hot Ones, the YouTube interview sensation.) These interviews can be effective at reaching voters who aren’t avid news consumers. But they’re also questionable venues for conveying one’s actual political agenda.
A Time magazine interview with Donald Trump published on Tuesday shows the power of long interviews with the establishment press. Yes, as my colleague Tim Noah has persuasively argued, Trump was very light on the specifics of his agenda. But in that interview you do see the outline of his authoritarian approach in a way you don’t from his rallies or tweets or courtroom scowls. In one lengthy document, Trump lays out (to the extent he’s capable) what he wants his second-term to look like: mass deportations, red states monitoring pregnancies, high tariffs, an abandonment of American allies. Whether the interview will actually help Trump’s electoral chances is unclear, but there’s no doubt that it drew more attention to his agenda in one day than Biden has drawn to his own over the first four months of the year.