77/100 stories about Biden that got the most social media attention in last 3 weeks were negative

[Otto Lidenbrock]

Unlike a certain someone he's not thrown the toys out of the pram screaming "fake news" and "enemy of the people".

Of the 100 stories about Joe Biden that have received the most social media attention over the last 3 weeks, 77 were negative, according to data from NewsWhip exclusively provided to Axios. Of the 25 biggest stories, 24 were negative.

The big picture: While stories about Biden may be generating more interactions on social media than his 2020 rivals, it's largely because he's getting ripped apart in those pieces.

Social media has never been kind to moderation, and Biden is getting a lot of incoming from both sides of the political spectrum.

Why it matters: As Biden maintains his perch atop the 2020 field in the polls, both the right and the left have incentives to chip away at his position with intense scrutiny and attacks.

Yes, but: Biden is not helping his cause with his recurring erroneous statements.

We reported in August that Biden was getting pummeled online for his gaffes. The gaffes have continued, as has the negative coverage around him.
The latest: In the last 3 weeks, the biggest Biden storylines (measured by interactions on articles on Facebook and Twitter) have been:

Plunging in a Monmouth poll to land in a virtual tie with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. (It was a small sample, and later polls with larger samples showed Biden was still in the lead.)
The Washington Post report that 'almost every detail' of a war story Biden tells was false.
Vice, citing a campaign video: "Joe Biden: It Would Be an Insult to My Dead Son for Everyone to Have Healthcare."
Saying in New Hampshire: "I love this place. Look, what's not to like about Vermont."
His wife Jill saying that voters might "have to swallow a little bit" by voting for Biden.
Saying in New Hampshire: "I want to be clear, I'm not going nuts."
Saying in Iowa that MLK and RFK were assassinated in the 1970s.

Link to tweet

[guillaumeb]

1. What was done to HRC in 2016 is being done now to Biden.

And the goal is to turn a positive viewpoint into a negative one. And as 2016 showed, this is effective.

[mopinko]

2. which is why i am not on the joe train.

if we nominate someone w this much baggage, we deserve what we get.

[emmaverybo]

4. If Warren becomes the front-runner, she will get every bit as much criticism. I hope she prunes

her policy proposals and prioritizes around a few that are doable. Doing so will give her more time to focus on message, her own distinctive qualifications, to take the fight to Trump in a more consistent and resounding way, and to attract the support she needs from voters she has not managed to excite, as enthused as are her current fans.

[mopinko]

9. if she becomes the clear front runner, she will pivot.

it will be all trump crimes all the time.

the plans have done their job already, imho. at least for the most part. they are the backdrop, the wallpaper now. they remove all doubt that she has the global intelligence it takes to be a good president. and her framing of them show that she has the heart.

they can call her pocahontas all they want. it wont stick.

yes, there will be rolling and trashing, but some candidates carry more fodder than others.

[TwilightZone]

5. None of our candidates is immune.

They all have strengths and they all have weaknesses. They all have what the opposition would consider "baggage".

Whoever the nominee ends up being will be treated as Biden is being treated now and as Hillary was treated in 2016. It's how the political world and the media work.

[StarfishSaver]

14. True

But that didn't stop people from blaming Hillary having too much "baggage."

[LincolnRossiter]

7. You're missing the point. With the right investigative slant and enough resources and scrutiny

devoted to a single target, I could write 77 negative stories about ANY candidate. And I mean any candidate. Don't think Warren is going to continue to skate if she somehow grabs the lead (which is doubtful, given the relative inefficacy of the attacks on Biden). Whether you know it or not, there are skeletons in that closet. Just as there are skeletons in yours and mine. Who knows which of those voters will care about and which of those they won't.

Warren is the MSM's candidate, so she may not get it quite as bad as Joe, but in the interest of a horserace she'll get more than her fair share of time at the whipping post.

[highplainsdem]

13. +1,000,000

[George II]

3. The troll farms in St. Petersburg are working overtime pumping out the propaganda.

Last edited Sun Sep 8, 2019, 01:17 PM - Edit history (1)

[TomCADem]

10. Vermont Public Radio: How The Russian Social Media Effort Boosted Bernie (On Mueller Indictment)

This story by VPR on the Mueller indictment is pretty chilling with respect to how Russia was able to influence trends in social media. The sad thing is that despite the Mueller indictment, what has changed to prevent similar campaigns by foreign actors? At best, we need to be aware of such tactics so that we do not accept social media activity as being reflective of a candidate's popularity or unpopularity.

https://www.vpr.org/post/how-russian-social-media-effort-boosted-bernie#stream/0

The allegations are laid out in a recent charges by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The 37-page indictment handed down last month includes dozens of allegations that Russians stole Americans' identities and created fake Facebook and Twitter accounts that worked as internet trolls designed to sow discord in the campaign.

These fake groups even staged political rallies, including one that featured an actress playing Hillary Clinton in a cage.

And part of the effort was designed to assist Sanders, the special counsel said.

[emmaverybo]

11. It would seem that a highly active and vocal slice of progressives want to help this effort. Rather

than criticizing Biden on a more important objective look at his record or on policy, they jump on any reported comment, distorting it to suggest he is sexist or racist, has severe character flaws, or
is in the first stages of dementia.

The vitriol I see on DU feels positively personal, but is spread by only a few busy bees, apparently
posting just to stir it up. They specialize in producing duplicate, triplicate, and more threads, prompting the same distortions based on a half-baked story about a story, or hammering away at
an already corrected slip of the tongue.

I don’t blame the professional detractors. After all, they are just doing their jobs. I am skeptical, however, about the motives behind the campaign to destroy Biden’s credibility I see here, launched and maintained by a mostly “undecided” contingent seemingly bent on swelling their numbers with
fellow DUers genuinely concerned about human rights, climate change, inequality.

I suggest number one that before jumping on the propaganda bandwagon, folks actually read the
original story at hand for context and not just the cherry-picked and twisted version presented in the OP.

Instruction to self: wrangling with these dedicated fact-manipulators only opens the door wider, inviting larger untruths, wilder leaps in judgement,

[treestar]

6. We have to not let the media influence us so much

This is the real problem.

[LincolnRossiter]

8. Easy to say. I can personally control how I view the media and its coverage, speak out on boards

like this one, and try to influence the people in my life. But that's about it. Most people aren't political nerds. They tune in for 10-20 minutes (total) in a given day, and all they get are the highlights and breaking news--which skew toward scandal.

[mopinko]

12. let me say this in a different way.

yes, every candidate is going to take a full bore blast from the slime machine every time they raise their heads.
but that doesnt mean that facts dont matter, and reality has been repealed.

it seems that way. and in 16 it pretty much was.
but it is a different political reality now.

there are real issues to pound on, and there are tan suits.
a tan suit is a lot harder scandal to sell today.

but imho both biden and sanders have real issues.
issues that matter.

the lesson i learned in 2016, and actually the reason i didnt want to get on the hillary train, is that i saw that baggage, and unfair and unfounded as i new it was, it had clear implications to me about the dreaded electability.
and so it came to pass.

i have zero desire to tread that path again.
i have little fear that a tan suit scandal could get traction in the face of clear existential threat to life on this planet.
if we cant defeat such low level noise, we are fucked no matter what. but i cant see taking any unnecessary risks.

[aikoaiko]

15. Otto, Biden's campaign is attacking his media coverage now, too.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/biden-symone-sanders-gaffes-press-narrative