The New York Times once again exposed its blatant double standards in journalism with its recent puff piece on former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to issue pardons and commutations—conveniently omitting critical Republican voices and legal experts who would have challenged Biden’s questionable actions. Political analyst Mark Halperin rightfully tore into the Times for this glaring omission, calling it “madness” and pointing out that if this had been a Republican president, the paper would have scrambled to include outraged Democratic reactions and hyperbolic legal takes.
“I thought Joe Biden was pretty good in the interview, but if the shoe were on the other foot, I can’t believe The New York Times wouldn’t have gone and gotten [Democratic California Sen.] Adam Schiff’s reaction,” Halperin said on The Morning Meeting. “There’s no Republican reaction in that story. There’s no legal expert quoted in the story.”
Halperin’s criticism hits the nail on the head. The Times gave Biden a free pass, allowing him to claim he “made every decision” regarding clemency—despite admitting he delegated the actual signing to an autopen. The article failed to scrutinize whether Biden even had the constitutional authority to delegate such a critical presidential power. Imagine if President Donald Trump had done the same—the Times would have flooded the piece with hysterical quotes from law professors declaring it an impeachable offense and Democrats demanding investigations.
But because it’s Biden, the Times gave him a soft interview, letting him paint himself as a benevolent leader simply trying to protect his family from Trump’s “vindictive” Justice Department. “Everybody knows how vindictive he is, so we knew that they’d do what they’re doing now,” Biden whined, framing his pardons—including the controversial one for his son Hunter—as acts of necessity rather than self-serving privilege.
The Times also buried the fact that Biden personally signed only one pardon—Hunter’s—while using an autopen for dozens of others. Emails reviewed by the paper showed Biden’s staff had a process to secure his verbal approval for autopen use, but that’s a far cry from the hands-on scrutiny these decisions deserved. When Biden granted clemency in bulk at the end of his term, he didn’t even review individual cases—just “criteria and standards.” That’s not leadership; that’s negligence.
Compare this to President Trump, who has always been held to an impossible standard by the liberal media. Every action, every tweet, every policy is dissected with relentless hostility, while Biden’s missteps are downplayed or ignored. The Times would never dare publish a fawning piece on Trump without including scathing criticism from Democrats—because their bias is that transparent.
This is why Americans increasingly distrust the mainstream media. They don’t report news—they craft narratives to protect their favored politicians and destroy their enemies. If the Times truly cared about journalism, they would have demanded accountability from Biden, not served as his PR team.
h/t: Steadfast and Loyal
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