When Biden Vanished: The Summer Sunday News Scramble
Staff Editor In an intensely visual news world, a seismic week of politics was transformed in an instant on Sunday by something almost old-fashioned: a printed statement. After a week saturated with endlessly repeated and parsed video of former President Donald Trump being shot at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, followed by the carefully choreographed four-day television show of the Republican National Convention, a dramatic news story unfolded that lacked the visual element in almost every way.
News shows on cable, particularly when covering live events or breaking news, rely heavily on video from scenes and their aftermath to provide the all-important connecting thread between talking heads and anchor updates. With no fresh video on Sunday other than “b-roll,” or old footage of Biden, news channels had to turn elsewhere. As the news began to sink in, prominent anchors like Wolf Blitzer on CNN, John Roberts on Fox News Channel, and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC interrupted their weekends to rush into the office. ABC and CBS dedicated more airtime to the story than NBC, which switched to NASCAR coverage after a half-hour.
Into this media whirlwind stepped Biden’s former White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, who was in a studio after finishing her Sunday show. This strategic positioning allowed her to break the news about her former boss. Joseph Biden, after 50 years in politics and reaching the highest office, had become yesterday’s news. Despite Biden’s repeated and emphatic insistence that he was staying in the race, the Sunday morning political talk shows featured surrogates pushing that line. Even Biden’s own White House and campaign staff members were taken by surprise by the announcement.
The TV political junkies were nearly giddy at the prospect of the news that would be generated leading up to the Democratic National Convention, set to begin on August 19 in Chicago. ABC News White House correspondent Mary Bruce commented that this would be a “really amazing, historic sprint to the finish.” Fox News commentator Dana Perino noted that the politics in the next four weeks would be “absolutely insane.” The anticipation was palpable as political analysts and reporters braced themselves for what promised to be a thrilling and unpredictable period.
In a world where visual storytelling often rules the day, this seismic shift highlighted the enduring power of the printed word. Even in an era dominated by video footage and live feeds, a simple statement can still command the attention of the nation and send shockwaves through the political landscape. As the dust settles and the media frenzy continues, one thing is certain: the road to the Democratic National Convention will be anything but dull, with every twist and turn eagerly awaited by the public and pundits alike.
