In May, CNN anchor, Jake Tapper and Axios political reporter, Alex Thompson, released their much-anticipated tell-all book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. On the eve of its release, Joe Biden’s family publicly disclosed that he has been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer.

While the announcement prompted an outpouring of support from world leaders, its timing only heightened the drama surrounding the book’s debut. Rather than divert attention, it intensified public concern about Biden’s health, his time in office, and his administration’s apparent lack of transparency.

While many in advanced democracies appear shocked by such anachronistic political tactics, we in Nigeria are not new to this sort of “cover-ups” by family members and close aides, who akin to a politburo, like to perpetuate their stay in power despite the incapacity of the person actually voted into office.

We witnessed similar political manoeuvring before, most notably during the final months of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Before the official declaration of his death on May 5, 2010, Yar’adua was last seen publicly on November 23, 2009 when he departed Nigeria for Saudi Arabia for medical check-up.

Amid growing anxiety over his whereabouts and condition, he was quietly flown back to Nigeria on February 24, 2010 after a 90-day absence. After his return, access to him was tightly controlled, even the then Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan was reportedly denied access to him. It took the courageous Prof. Dora Akinyuili to expose Yar’Adua incapacity before we had an orderly transition of the presidential duties to Jonathan.

Unlike Yar’adua who was not seen, Biden remained publicly visible, even during COVID-19 from his “basement campaign”. There were recurring signs which made many question his mental acuity, but when people brought it up, the mainstream media and many prominent Democrats dismissed it as ageist and conspiracy theories. Even Jack Tapper is complicit. In 2020, he shutdown Lara Trump, when she questioned Biden’s health; he has since apologised, saying “she saw something that I did not see at the time”. 

Many Democrats, including members of his cabinet, who then admitted Biden was as agile as a fox when they spoke with him, are now recanting, claiming they didn’t have frequent access to him to judge effectively. Some are even saying they didn’t meet or brief him for months. Instead, they briefed senior White House aides, who would then “speak” to Biden.

It is now evident that there was a “deliberate strategy” to keep the president at a distance, hoping they could push him through the 2024 elections to secure re-election, thereby ending Trump’s resurgence. But the whole strategy fell apart spectacularly with his disastrous debate with Trump last year. Then what was hidden came out in the open in the most shameful of ways to the world. It was so bad that no one could cover up and ultimately he left the presidential race. As the authors declared early, “This isn’t hindsight, everyone saw it happening. As the African proverb puts it: “Character is like pregnancy—you can’t hide it forever.”

While many Democrats and media practitioners intend to “forget” the past, and fixate with “looking forward.” It is undeniable that whatever remains of Joe Biden’s reputation has been sullied.  

Also sullied is the little that remains of the mainstream media. Over the years trust in the media has dwindled, and most polls show trust in the media to be at all-time low. Many don’t believe what the media tells them, and record numbers say they don’t trust the press at all. That’s not just a public opinion problem; it’s a credibility crisis. With the rise of citizen journalism and alternate forms of getting information, the gate-keeping role of the traditional media has been truncated.

At the 2025 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Alex Thompson acknowledged this when he stated “President Biden’s decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception… Being truth tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story. And some people trust us less because of it. We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows. I say this because acknowledging errors builds trust, and being defensive about them further erodes it. We should have done better.”

What exactly does Thompson mean by “we should have done better”? How would the media have done better when many journalists are not guided by truth as it is, but by what they want the truth to be. Despite all the soul-searching and promises to improve, the media will forget this moment and revert to favouring narratives over facts.

Thompson was right to challenge his colleagues to reflect and “tell the truth about themselves”. This truth searching will show that the greatest threat to media independence is not government censorship, but the media itself. Most of the media are partisan, with little diversity among their team, rather than sharing facts and truth, they’ve become echo chambers for their political and ideological worldview aimed at opinion programming and control.

Little wonder many don’t trust them because they fail to report the news accurately and fairly. Rather than reporting objectively, many shape narratives to fit their worldview. Globally, the ideological leanings of most media houses are known; ironically they don’t even deny it. Even in Nigeria, the political affiliations of some television and print media are openly known. How, then, can such a press be called “independent” or “free”? In some cases, media outlets actively serve as government opposition, rather than checks on political power.

Biden’s collapse and Trump’s resurgence should serve as a wake-up call for the media. We need a comprehensive review of the roles within the media space. Are journalists, broadcasters, influencers, and content creators’ observers or participants? Are they reporting facts or performing for views and engagement?

The media is often referred to as the “Fourth Estate.” To remain worthy of that title, it must recommit to truth, transcend ideological biases, and act independently.

Pope Leo XIV (re-echoing Pope Francis) made a powerful appeal to media practitioners on May 12 when he said:

“Let us disarm words, and we will help to disarm the world. Disarmed and disarming communication allows us to share a different view of the world and to act in a manner consistent with our human dignity.”

His words are a reminder that truth-telling is not just a professional obligation, it is a moral imperative.

Nwachukwu is a legal practitioner and a writer. He can be reached at nwachukwujo @ gmail. com