Last week, President Biden delivered a speech in Normandy, France, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, which is credited as the beginning of the end of the Axis’ hold on Europe, leading to the conclusion of WWII. Present at the speech were dignitaries from NATO nations and D-Day survivors.

According to the Imperial War Museum, the “invasion of northern France in 1944 was the most significant victory of the Western Allies in the Second World War. American, British and Canadian forces established a foothold on the shores of Normandy, and, after a protracted and costly campaign to reinforce their gains, broke out into the French interior and began a headlong advance.”

Biden’s speech came 40 years after President Ronald Reagan’s similar 1984 address, considered by many to be “the gold standard of presidential oratory” (NYT). Biden drew sharp parallels between the evils faced by the Allies eight decades ago and those that the world is facing today, specifically calling out Russia’s war with Ukraine and the dangers that democracy faces as a result.

The speech received praise from the left while the right used it to focus on perceptions of Biden’s mental fitness. Our team examined media coverage of the D-Day speech from across the political spectrum in this week’s Topic of the Week. 

Each week, Ad Fontes Media chooses a widely covered trending news topic to share insight into how our analysts rank news coverage for the Media Bias Chart®. To do this, we select six articles reporting on the same story from different outlets to show how each treated the subject.

Using those sets of articles, pods of analysts with diverse political perspectives (one right leaning, one center, and one left leaning) read each article and use Ad Fontes Media’s content analysis methodology to determine its bias and reliability. These ratings inform the articles’ placement on that week’s special Media Bias Chart®.

Our analyst team examined the following articles about Biden’s speech from last week: “Biden’s D-Day Speech Nailed the Threat of Modern Fascism” from the Daily Beast, “Biden’s ‘perpetual state of confusion’ on display in Normandy amid rising cognitive questions” from Fox News (website), “Forty Years Later, Biden Seeks to Echo Reagan’s Legacy of American Leadership” from The New York Times, “Awkward moment Jill Biden appears to tell Joe not to sit at D-Day ceremony, but he does anyway” from the New York Post, “Video edited to make it appear Biden tried to sit down when there wasn’t a chair” from the Associated Press, and “Biden summons the legacy of WW2 heroes to call on Americans to protect democracy today” from CNN.

The ratings for each of these articles can be found on the website. In this blog we will take a deeper dive into the reporting from the New York Post and the Daily Beast.

New York Post is a daily newspaper founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton as The New-York Evening Post. The aggregate scores from this source from all articles rated by our analyst team are 9.07 for bias (skews right) and 32.83 for reliability (analysis or wide variation in reliability). This week’s article was rated at 13.33 for bias (strong right) and 24 for reliability (opinion or other issues).

The article from the New York Post leans heavily into the narrative that Joe Biden’s mental fitness is in decline: “The 81-year-old could be seen grasping for his chair in the middle of the stage in Normandy…,” adding that the footage “quickly went viral.”

The article also states that Biden closed his eyes, “prompting some to claim he was dozing off,” and “another clip circulating on social media later showed the 46th president appearing lost after shaking hands with Macron — before a handler ushered him away in the right direction.”

It’s obvious that the intent of this article is to give a negative portrayal of Biden rather than focus on the reason for the event: the commemoration of D-Day. In fact, it mentions D-Day only in the last few paragraphs of the article, which ends with a quote from Biden’s speech: “‘The men who fought here became heroes,’ Biden said. ‘They knew beyond any doubt there are things that are worth fighting and dying for.’”

Daily Beast is a news and opinion website that focuses on politics and pop culture. Launched in 2008, the site is based in New York City and owned by InterActiveCorp. The aggregate scores from this source from all articles rated by our analyst team are -11.91 for bias (skews left) and 34.02 for reliability (analysis or wide variation in reliability). This week’s article was rated at -14.67 for bias (strong left) and 25.67 for reliability (opinion or other issues).

The subheading for this longer opinion piece reads: “Speaking on sacred ground in Normandy, the president correctly drew parallels between America’s enemies in World War II and the threats we face domestically and globally today.” This is an accurate summary of the liberals’ response to Biden’s speech.

The article begins by commenting on the emotional impact of the presence of those who took part in the battle, “Watching the small parade of elderly men and women—many in wheelchairs, some wearing military insignia—receive the gratitude of the President of the United States and the leaders of the Western world on the 80th anniversary of D-Day was profoundly moving.”

The article gives details about the speech, stating that Biden called out the threat of tyranny from Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, and then states that his message was not intended only for Russia but for “political adversaries at home who did not seem to understand why we fought in World War II.” These include, the article says, “members of the GOP MAGA alliance that for months blocked aid to Ukraine and who have made—much like those who opposed U.S. involvement in the Second World War—’America First’ their rallying cry.”

The article details what it says are the fascist leanings of Donald Trump and draws parallels between his MAGA movement and the threats that the world faced in WWII. “…America is now just five months from an election that could bring to power a man and a movement who embody and celebrate the twisted authoritarian values of the enemies we sought to defeat so long ago.” These comparisons demonstrate a strong left bias throughout the article.

These are just two examples of the tens of thousands of articles our analysts have rated for reliability and bias. If you want a look at the larger media landscape or are curious to see how our analysts have rated your favorite sources, visit our website and check out the resources we have available. And don’t forget to come back for another examination of our Topic of the Week.

If you want to stay informed on all of our amazing work, join our free mailing list!

Sara Webb is a cybersecurity consultant and former high school librarian from Philadelphia, PA. She holds an M.S. in Informatics and an M. Ed in School Library and Information Technology, and has been a media literacy educator for over a decade. Sara started with Ad Fontes Media in July 2020 as a Media Analyst, and she currently continues in that role and as in-house Media Literacy Specialist. When not engrossed in media literacy projects, Sara can be found at the barn with her ex-racehorse Homer, or training her corgis for dog agility competitions.