WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden slammed media outlets on Saturday, accusing them of using “lies for profit and power” to incite hatred.
His comments were accompanied by jabs at Fox News, which may have foreshadowed a 2024 presidential campaign theme.
In his speech at the yearly White House Correspondents’ Association supper, President Joe Biden said “truth is buried by lies,” in a reference to untrue rumours that his victory in the 2020 election was the result of widespread voter fraud.
“Lies told for profit and influence. Conspiracy and venomous lies are constantly spread to incite rage, hatred, and even violence,” according to Biden.
The cycle, according to Biden, has given local governments the confidence to outlaw literature and “take away our rights and freedoms.”
Focusing on what he called “an extreme press,” Biden simultaneously joked about the possibility of legal action for defamation if he described Fox News as “honest, fair, and truthful.”
Fox Corp. resolved a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems earlier this month for $787.5 million. The dispute arose from Fox’s erroneous claims that the presidential election for 2020 had been rigged in favour of Biden.
In a dig at former President Donald Trump, Biden joked that comedian Roy Wood Jr, a featured speaker at the event, had offered him $10 to make his address brief.
Biden remarked to laughter, “That’s a switch, a president being given hush money,”
In a case involving an alleged $130,000 hush payment to an adult film star during his 2016 campaign, Trump was charged with 34 felonies on April 4. Trump entered a not-guilty plea to each allegation.
PRESS FREEDOM
This annual dinner is attended by scores of reporters covering the White House and many government officials. It also has become a showcase for entertainment industry stars to socialise with Washington’s power elite.
Presidents except for Trump normally attend the annual dinner and use their speeches as signals to the US Constitution’s First Amendment, ensuring freedom of speech and the press.
But the intense partisanship that has engulfed American politics in recent years has occasionally made the amusing dinner, affectionately known in Washington as “the nerd prom,” a contentious event.
In 2011, Trump, who was seated in the audience, was made fun of by then-President Barack Obama during a portion of his address. At the time, Trump had been circulating the myth that Obama was not born in America.
In his remarks, Biden stated that his government and he were “here to deliver a message to the nation and quite honestly to the world. A free press is not the adversary but rather a foundation of a free society.
Prior to the dinner, Biden met in private with the family of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was detained on March 30 in Russia and later charged with espionage. He is being unlawfully held, according to the US administration.
As he discussed efforts being made to release reporters who are being held in detention all over the world, Biden remarked that journalism is not a crime.
The president and First Lady Jill Biden also saw Brittney Griner, a basketball player who was imprisoned by Moscow on drug smuggling allegations in 2013 but was freed in December.
Biden changed the subject from the difficult work needed to liberate Americans imprisoned abroad to a more humorous section of his address, even making fun of himself.
I support the First Amendment. Not simply because my friend Jimmy Madison, who wrote it,” the is 80 years old president joked.
James Madison was the fourth US president, who served from 1809-1817.
