Opinion from the Center
One of the most well-known members of the US Senate is Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman. Fetterman first became known nationally in 2022 when he edged out President Trump’s current Medicaid head, Dr. Mehmet Oz, in a hotly contested Senate race.
A core part of the narrative surrounding the 2022 race was how Fetterman suffered a stroke during the campaign, which left him ostensibly impaired and questioned by many about his fitness to serve. The unfortunate situation left lots for Republicans and media outlets on the right to pick at during the race, and in turn, lots for Democrats and liberal media outlets to defend against.
But since the Senator has reoriented himself towards compromising with President Trump and Republicans in recent months, some of the same liberal media outlets that propped him up in the past are now raising questions with the same “unfit to serve” card Republicans played against him during and after the 2022 race.
Left-Rated Media Turn on Fetterman
In 2022, weeks before the election, New York Magazine (Left bias) deployed over 5,500 words in a cover story to defend a “visibly improving” Fetterman against “attacks” from the GOP and Fox News’ (Right) “prime-time lineup” who questioned his “fitness to serve.”
Yet on May 2, the same magazine published a 7,000-word feature that described Fetterman as on a “power trip” after his staffers reportedly suggested he’s a shell of the man he once was because of his health issues.
Its author, Ben Terris, who interviewed Fetterman and his staffers for the report, wrote that Fetterman’s impairment in 2022 was “painfully evident” and acknowledged that Democrats “rallied to his defense and confidently predicted he would still be fit to serve.”
Near the end of the feature, Terris writes, “In my conversation with Fetterman, I didn’t find any indication that the stroke had left him cognitively impaired.” Yet in the paragraphs that follow, he questioned Fetterman about his health issues and painted the picture of a mentally and physically defeated man who is at odds with “disgruntled” staffers.
Fetterman described Terris’ feature as a “hit piece.”
A week after NY Mag’s feature, The Atlantic (Left) published a feature about Fetterman’s health titled “The Partisan Mind Virus,” where it criticized “conservatives” for “denying the obvious unfitness of a politician because he’s politically useful.”
Back in February 2023, right after Fetterman took office, the outlet published a feature that derided conservatives over the mere possibility that they could raise this exact question.
Author Jennifer Senior said she suspected “the hooligans at Fox and in the even-further-right precincts of the Trump underworld will say that he’s unfit to serve.” In the next line, she acknowledged the rationality of the question, writing that maybe even some of Fetterman’s supporters “will quietly wonder the same.”
But ultimately, Senior chalked things up to democracy, concluding, “Fetterman was handily elected by Pennsylvanians, who knew quite well they were electing a man who had suffered a life-altering upset to his health.”
News reporting from outlets like Associated Press (Left) has also changed in scope. For instance, in the days leading up to the 2022 election, it wrote that Fetterman was “recovering remarkably well” in two different reports.
However, on May 8 of this year, AP published a report that claimed those working with Fetterman question if he ever recovered from his stroke and highlighted the litany of medical ailments with which the senator deals.
Fetterman’s Shift Toward the Center
Though many Democrats heralded Fetterman in his race against Oz, over the past year or so, Fetterman seems to have shifted towards the center politically, even signaling a willingness to work with President Trump on certain issues.
His open attitude was perhaps most evident to the masses when, just days before the 2024 presidential election, he appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience (Center) podcast for an over two-hour conversation.
While campaigning against Oz, Fetterman sometimes struggled to voice coherent sentences or thoughts – yet on Rogan’s podcast, he navigated through the long, unscripted conversation, demonstrating not only an appetite to reach a more centrist or even right-wing audience but a cognitive ability that’s apparently improved since 2022 as well.
During the podcast, Fetterman made headlines for pouring cold water on the theory often endorsed by Democrats and liberal media that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was measurably aided by the Russian government.
He said, “I never bought into some of that kind of stuff. If anyone that spent any time on the ground in one of those states, it’s like it’s very clear that wasn’t because of some small kinds of tweets and things and things like, whatever. It’s undeniable.”
In January, an analysis from AP highlighted Fetterman’s shift, claiming, “In fact, Fetterman has warmed to Trump so much that some in his party are quietly disavowing the man they supported in 2022.”
In this article and other coverage, AP has noted Fetterman forged a political career independently, without full-throated DNC support, even quoting a strategist who described the idea that he would “fall in line with Senate Democratic leadership” as “crazy.”
In March, Fetterman notably criticized his party when Democrats opted to not stand for a 13-year-old cancer survivor honored by President Trump during his joint address to Congress.
Conservative Media’s Track Record on Fetterman
Liberal media outlets haven’t been the only ones to change their framing of Fetterman, however.
During the 2022 election, Fetterman was assailed from many angles by conservative media outlets, which rarely missed an opportunity to highlight and sometimes weaponize his post-stroke condition.
National Review (Right) was one of the outlets authoring opinions about Fetterman the most.
In September 2022, Rich Lowry (Right) called for Fetterman to debate Oz, describing his health as a “legitimate issue.”
In October 2022 and February 2023, Charles C.W. Cooke (Right) wrote about Fetterman’s health struggles and accused liberal media outlets of trying to hide the gravity of the senator’s condition.
In May 2023, Jim Geraghty (Lean Right) criticized liberal media for trying to overstate Fetterman’s improvements, but highlighted that a Republican Senator said Fetterman’s condition was improving. Geraghty concluded, “Maybe Fetterman really is slowly growing more functional and closer to his old self, and he’s just at his worst under the pressure of the cameras and lights.”
In response to the recent New York Magazine feature, Noah Rothman (Lean Right) stuck with National Review’s seemingly publication-wide stance that liberal media worked to makeover Fetterman’s condition when it suited the Democrats politically.
But his essay also marks a shift for conservative media on the matter. It refers to Fetterman as appearing to have undergone a “wondrous recovery” and demonstrating “sense[s] of conviction and purpose [that] are clearly heartfelt.”
A change in framing regarding news coverage of Fetterman and his condition also came from outlets like Fox News (Right).
From late 2022 to early 2023, Fox reported amply on Fetterman’s condition, often sensationalizing or slanting headlines against him.
Among these reports were headlines saying Fetterman “has missed an alarmingly high percentage of roll-call votes due to illness” or that his office “doctored several of his quotes to make him sound more coherent.”
Fox also reported Fetterman was not able to hear journalists “yelling” to him and needed closed captions to understand reporters, and highlighted liberal media outlets acknowledging the seriousness of his health issues.
Now, following New York Magazine’s May 2 feature, Fox has run many pieces of coverage on the senator, several that criticize Democrats and liberal media for turning their biases against him.
On May 6, Fox criticized liberal media pundits like Kara Swisher and Mehdi Hasan for turning on Fetterman. A few days later, it elevated claims from senators who derided NY Mag’s piece as part of a “smear” campaign. A week later, it published the headline, “Knives out for Fetterman: Maverick senator joins long line of Dems punished for breaking from left.”
By looking at the case of Senator Fetterman and his health ailments, the shift in story choice and tone demonstrates how partisan media outlets behave when a story is politically convenient for their “side.”
Though certain media from the left were previously critical of conservatives and media on the right for suggesting Fetterman might be unfit to serve when he was running against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, they are now more receptive to the narrative as he has been vocally critical of Democrats.
Media outlets on the right, which have been steadfast in their criticisms of liberal media, are now offering Fetterman more of the benefit of the doubt since he appears to have shifted more towards the political center in terms of his rhetoric and media interactions.
Andy Gorel is a News and Social Media Editor at AllSides. He has a Center bias.
This piece was reviewed by Malayna J. Bizier, News Analyst and Social Media Editor (Right), and Evan Wagner, News Editor and Product Manager (Lean Left).
