In a revelation announced on Monday by the New York Times, former Newsweek editor, liberal historian and MSNBC / NBC staffer Jon Meacham wrote speeches for former Vice President Joe Biden, including his Saturday night “Victory Speech.” Of course, Meacham and Comcast’s own networks have never disclosed this fact.
The lack of ethics wasn’t entirely surprising, as Meacham campaigned for Biden and spoke at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 20, and neither network seemed to care. And that’s on top of the fact that their ethically challenged ranks include Mike Barnicle, Joy Reid, and Brian Williams.
According to Annie Karni and John Koblin, Meacham has been helping Biden for some time (click “Expand”):
Jon Meacham, the President’s historian and biographer, has contributed to writing President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s speeches, according to multiple sources, including the acceptance speech Mr. Biden delivered from Wilmington on Saturday night. Del.
In that address, Mr. Biden spoke of a mission to “rebuild the soul of America, rebuild the backbone of that nation, the middle class, and restore respect for America around the world”. Mr. Meacham’s 2018 book, The Soul of America: The Fight For Our Better Angels, has long been a touchstone for Mr. Biden, who read it and in the past reached out to Mr. Meacham to discuss passages that pleased him.
Mr. Biden’s speaking process will be led by Mike Donilon, longtime advisor to the President-Elect. But behind the scenes, Mr Meacham has played a bigger role than previously known. He has both written draft speeches and edited many of Mr. Biden’s major addresses, including one he gave in Gettysburg last month and his acceptance speech at the National Democratic Convention in August.
(….)
A Biden official added that Mr. Meacham was involved in discussions about the topics in the victory speech.
Citing a source, The Times added that Meacham would continue to appear, however “Will no longer be a paid contribution in the future.”
It would be nice if Meacham, MSNBC, and NBC admitted that they breached basic journalistic ethics but didn’t hold their breath. And as we all know, if it had happened on Fox News, both CNN and MSNBC would be demanding that their heads roll.
Instead, we had moments like this on Saturday when Lyin ‘invited Brian Meacham to tune in on the night he, as we now know, was helping with the crafting (click “Expand”):
Today’s markings – the overall election result – mark a renewal of an American conversation in which we are imperfectly struggling to achieve the full effects of the Jeffersonian promise of equality that has lasted us too long. Our work has been bloody and tragic and painful and painfully difficult and Lord knows it is unfinished. But at best we try and at best we are the vice president – sorry, the president-elect has to get used to it, the president-elect tonight quoted Martin Luther King as saying, the 19th-century abolitionist quoted by Theodore Parker speaks of it, that the arc of a universe is long, but it tends towards justice. It only bends when there are people like John Lewis and people like Jim Clyburn and people like the electorate and people like abolitionists who insist it dodge.
That’s the dialect of history, and what’s going on now is the resumption of a conversation about who we are and who we want to be, and it’s – it’s interesting – interesting about President Trump and for the past four years it’s been a Conversation revived and transformed because we are more aware of fragility and the things that many of us have taken for granted. If you look like me and you Brian, it works out for us in this country, right? But the history of the country at its best is a story of obstacles overcome and opportunities expanded, you know? From Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall, these are the moments we celebrate and these are battlefields as safe as Omaha Beach and Antietam and Iwo Jima and those battles are now connected again. We always have to be, I think tonight is a reminder of the country’s possibilities, but the past four years are a reminder of the dangers we always face and as an old trope of the 18th century, the 19th century eternal vigilance is the price of freedom and I think that is a price we must all be willing to pay.
Hours earlier, Meacham was also on MSNBC to share his thoughts on the news organizations projecting Biden as president-elect, and as with his prime-time appearance, there was no disclosure.
When Meacham was asked about the results, he raved about the American “Republicans Held Today” Considering America was absent because of Donald Trump “The deficit of decency, the deficit of hope, the rise of fear” and “The Rise of Selfishness.”
On Saturday, this lack of journalistic ethics was made possible by advertisers like Ensure, Qunol and Robitussin. Follow the links to the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
Click Expand to view the relevant November 7th MSNBC transcript.
MSNBC Decision 2020
November 7, 2020
9:32 p.m. East
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Jon Meacham, I told you Erinn is a deadline journalist. Either you have it or you don’t have it and she has it. She has the benefit of an entire website, news and opinion called The 19th. That night, just as we’ve just heard from Kamala Harris and I’m about to read the AP leadership, Kamala Devi Harris, a daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, becomes the highest ranking woman in the country’s 244th anniversary. That is logical. And Jon, until I started, I’m not the historian you are, and I don’t have the Pulitzer that you do. Do you agree that we are used to hearing from our presidents?
JON MEACHAM: Absolutely. Today’s markings – the overall election result – mark a renewal of an American conversation in which we are imperfectly struggling to achieve the full effects of the Jeffersonian promise of equality that has lasted us too long. Our work has been bloody and tragic and painful and painfully difficult and Lord knows it is unfinished. But at best we try and at best we are the vice president – sorry, the president-elect has to get used to it, the president-elect tonight quoted Martin Luther King as saying, the 19th-century abolitionist quoted by Theodore Parker speaks of it, that the arc of a universe is long, but it leans towards justice. It only bends when there are people like John Lewis and people like Jim Clyburn and people like the electorate and people like abolitionists who insist it dodge. That’s the dialect of history, and what’s going on now is the resumption of a conversation about who we are and who we want to be, and it’s – it’s interesting – interesting about President Trump and for the past four years it’s been a Conversation revived and changed because we are more aware of fragility and the things that many of us have taken for granted. If you look like me and you Brian, it works out for us in this country, right? But the history of the country at its best is a story of obstacles overcome and opportunities expanded, you know? From Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall, these are the moments we celebrate and these are battlefields as safe as Omaha Beach and Antietam and Iwo Jima and those battles are now connected again. We always have to be, I think tonight is a reminder of the country’s possibilities, but the past four years are a reminder of the dangers we always face and as an old trope of the 18th century, the 19th century eternal vigilance the price of freedom and I think that is a price we must all be willing to pay.
WILLIAMS: And I think that’s why everyone was talking about John Lewis, watching this tonight, among other things.
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