Legacy media outlets appear to have gotten the message — straight from the White House — on how to handle a rash of recent viral video clips that show an unflattering side of President Joe Biden looking lost, frail, or old.

The White House has repeatedly referred to these video clips — many of which were not edited and provided full context of the situation in which they were taken — as “cheap fakes,” claiming that they were intentionally deceptive or promoting outright lies about President Biden and his mental state.

“They are done in bad faith. And some of your news organizations have, have been very clear, have stressed that these right-wing, the right-wing critics of the president have a credibility problem because of the fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation,” White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre complained during a recent briefing. “And so we see this, and this is something coming from your part of the world, calling them cheap fakes and misinformation.”

Left-leaning media outlets immediately grabbed buckets and began dutifully carrying the Biden administration’s talking points, as reported by Newsbusters.

WATCH:

Looks like state-controlled media got the White House talking points, because now they’re pretending that any video which makes Biden look old is a “cheap fake.”

🎥 by @Banned_Bill pic.twitter.com/KqltMIV8az

— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) June 19, 2024

Grabien founder Tom S. Elliott compiled a list of how much time “the corporate media” spent discussing the phrase “cheap fakes,” and the results were through the roof.

“ORDERS RECEIVED: In the last 3 days, the corporate media has spent 49 hours circulating the White House’s ‘cheap fakes’ talking point,” he commented, sharing a screenshot of the data.

ORDERS RECEIVED: In the last 3 days, the corporate media has spent 49 hours circulating the White House’s “cheap fakes” talking point pic.twitter.com/1R3tPmm7To

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 19, 2024

According to his data, “the corporate media” spent more than 49 hours discussing “cheap fakes” between June 15th and June 19th.

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The coverage was so pervasive that it drew mockery from Fox News host Greg Gutfeld, who wondered where the anti-hoax, anti-cheap fake media had been when the deceptive editing was being perpetrated against former President Donald Trump.

“Where were these anti-hoaxers when there was the ‘fine people hoax,’ the ‘drinking bleach hoax,’ the ‘koi pond hoax,’ the ‘migrant kids in cages hoax,’ the ‘border patrol whipping migrants hoax,’ the ‘lab leak is a conspiracy theory hoax,’ the ‘Russian collusion hoax,’ the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill hoax’ … did I leave any — the ‘Pee Tape hoax,” Gutfeld said, nearly running himself out of breath as he tried to list them all. “Where were they?”