Former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather laid into the media's intense recent scrutiny over President Joe Biden's grammatical flubs Monday, writing that not only does it pale in comparison to his opponent, it fails to take into account the stakes of the election.
In Rather's piece titled "A Dangerous Double Standard," he pointed out that it seems the media is ready to pounce at Biden's every word, including his recent interview with ABC's George Stephanopolous, where the president may have mistakenly said "goodest" instead of "good as."
A transcript of that interview released by ABC showed Biden said: “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about.”
The White House was not a fan of the transcription, and The New York Times reported that the transcript was changed to "good as" upon a later listening from ABC's standards team.
This is an unsustainable level of scrutiny, argues Rather, and the same level hasn't applied to both candidates this election cycle.
"So here we are — one slightly hard to discern word in an otherwise coherent interview," he wrote. "And then there is the other guy. The one who can’t seem to string together a single coherent sentence — a fact news organizations don’t even bother mentioning any more. Try making sense of this gobbledegook from Trump’s remarks at a recent rally in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania:
'Our nation was saved by the immortal heroes at Gettysburg. Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was. The battle of Gettysburg, what an unbelievable. I mean it was so, was so much, and so interesting, and so vicious and horrible, and so beautiful in so many different ways — it represented such a big portion of the success of this country. Gettysburg, wow! I go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to look and to watch. And uh the statement of Robert E. Lee, who’s no longer in favor — did you ever notice that? He’s no longer in favor. ‘Never fight uphill, me boys, never fight uphill.’ They were fighting uphill, he said. Wow, that was a big mistake, he lost his great general and uh they were fighting uphill. ‘Never fight uphill, me boys,’ but it was too late.'"
An incredulous Rather asks, "What??"
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He questioned why the press is hanging on Biden's every word, when Trump's own questionable speech earned crickets from the media.
"Why are the rules so different for these two men? Both should be held accountable for their deeds and words. But they aren’t. Trump gets pass after pass," writes Rather.
He later reminds readers what, in his eyes, truly matters this election cycle: Democrats have rallied around a "decent man who has devoted his life to the service of the country.
Republicans, on the other hand, "hitched their wagon to a cult leader."
"They are willing to do just about anything to win back the White House: lie; obliterate the rules; blindly back a convicted felon, a cheater, a sexual assaulter, a Project 2025 promoter, a dictator on day one, and an insurrectionist. Maybe they should change their MAGA caps to say 'The ends justify the means," said Rather.
