Conservative Media Being Unfair About Biden’s Holiday Speech

Cherry-picking is for picking cherries.

“This Christmas, Jill and I were honored to thank a few brave men and women in uniform for their sacrifices this time of year. They’re away from their families to protect us. And they have the thanks of a grateful, indebted president,” President Biden posted to Twitter. (President Joe Biden, Twitter.)

“Good afternoon,” President Joe Biden began his holiday address at 4:15 PM EST on December 22, 2022. “‘How silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is given.’”

By 6:00 PM, conservative media outlets had already pounced.

“Joe Biden Delivers Christmas Address Without Saying the Word ‘Jesus’; Calls for Americans to ‘Drain’ Political ‘Poison’”, screamed a Breitbart headline, almost made unintelligible by snarky quotation marks.

“‘How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given,’” Biden began, as he delivered his address to reporters at the White House,” reported Breitbart, leaving off the quotation marks prominent in a transcript of the President’s remarks.

“The president spoke about a ‘child’ born on Christmas but did not speak the child’s name,” Breitbart continued, before honing in on the following line in Biden’s speech:

“And we look to the sky, to a lone star, shining brighter than all the rest, guiding us to the birth of a child — a child Christians believe to be the son of God.”

President Joe Biden did indeed utter those words. But as we all learned in grammar school, punctuation is paramount. The most famous example of the power of…