An Important Note to Banter Readers On Joe Biden and Our Mission

How I feel right now.

by Ben Cohen

Over the past 48 hours, we have experienced a very significant exodus of subscribers, all in response to the piece I wrote in favor of President Biden stepping aside. There is nothing like a mass loss of supporters to remind you how precarious your livelihood is. This is not something I take lightly, and I wanted to address the criticisms leveled at me by many of our readers.

My position

Firstly, I want to make my position clear. I still believe Biden should step down and allow the party to select another candidate. This is based on my observation that Biden is in no physical condition to continue and is putting his health in danger. I’m not a doctor obviously, but I have watched close relatives decline like this and instinctively want to protect them. I have great affection for the president and wish him nothing but good health and happiness. I am genuinely concerned about his ability to continue campaigning and would not be speaking out if I wasn’t. I do accept I could be wrong, but if you’ve been with relatives in the latter stages of life, there are obvious signs that cannot be ignored.

That being said, if Biden does not want to step down, I will forcefully advocate for his reelection. If it is Biden or Trump, it has to be Biden. Period. Under no circumstances can a deranged sexual predator be allowed to back into the White House. Trump is a convicted felon, a traitor, and a dictator in waiting. Biden is a decent man and has been thus far, a great president. Even in his diminished state, Biden is infinitely superior to Trump.

The Banter’s mission

The Banter has and always will be a place for independent thought, intellectual exploration, and debate. I welcome pushback from readers, publish views from our team I strongly disagree with, and do my best to navigate the treacherous waters of independent publishing. We rigorously fact check articles, publish corrections if we make mistakes, and make sure our citations and sources are exemplary. I also make sure to always be honest with our readers. That means saying things many won’t agree with. It also means being willing to lose income when readers stop supporting us over something we’ve published.

The greatest fear I have is succumbing to audience capture. This means publishing opinions I don’t agree with but know will play well with our readers. If I said I thought Biden should continue after the debate or attempted to downplay how severe a crisis it was, I would have been lying. I understand if you have a different opinion, and I’m sure Bob and Justin have their own thoughts that do not mirror my own. I welcome these opinions and want to engage respectfully with them. But I will not say something I don’t believe in for financial gain. I’ve watched formerly great journalists like Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald succumb to the forces of audience capture, and I refuse to follow them.

The Banter is my main source of income. It is how I feed my family, including two small children. I am immensely grateful to all of our readers who financially support what we do here, even when they disagree with something we’ve published. I do not take that for granted, so thank you to everyone sticking with us during these immensely difficult times.

Ben

If you’d like to support The Banter, you can do so here: