In a historic speech, the first of its kind in more than 56 years, President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office Wednesday night, explaining why he will not seek a second term.

“I revere this office, but I love my country more,” Biden said. “Nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.”

He said it has “been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years.” But, in the only time that he alluded to his age as being the possible reason he is stepping away from the race, Biden said it was time to “pass the torch.” He said, “There’s also a time and a place for new voices. Fresh voices. Yes, younger voices.”

He spoke for 11 minutes, but his words carried a powerful message that was of stark contrast to Donald Trump, even though he never mentioned Trump by name. Biden also threw his full support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

All three major networks — ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as PBS — preempted regular programming to carry Biden’s remarks. They brought in the evening news anchors — David Muir (ABC), Norah O’Donnell (CBS) and Lester Holt (NBC) — to oversee the coverage.

The cable networks — CNN, Fox News and MSNBC — also had special coverage, although Fox News quickly cut back to its regularly scheduled program hosted by Jesse Watters (Watters did talk about Biden’s speech).

CNN and MSNBC, however, had full special coverage with big panels. CNN had what felt like a cast of thousands with the coverage being anchored by Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper and Kaitlan Collins. The most powerful moments in the immediate aftermath came from CNN.

An emotional Van Jones said, “He asked the question does character still matter? Well, it does tonight. It does tonight. The kid with a stutter did good. He did good. He’s a good man. He fell on the sword. Most heroes, they fight till the bitter end. He fell on his sword. He’s an old guy, but the heart is still there. The words aren’t as clear, but the love is as clear. The heart is still there.”

Jones then said, “I think people need to look at this because we had somebody sit in that chair and he wouldn’t give up power no matter what. Wouldn’t give up power, let there be an insurrection, wouldn’t get out of that chair! Even when people voted him to get out of that chair, he wouldn’t get out of that chair. And you got somebody (now) sitting in that same chair, showing that character does matter, showing you can have grace, you can put the people first. You can pass the baton. And you’re a bigger person for it.”

Jones finished with, “You got two examples now of what men with power will do, how they act at the end. You couldn’t act any better than Joe Biden. That kid with the stutter grew up, did a great job for this country and did a great job tonight.”

CNN’s David Axelrod added, “I think history will look kindly on Joe Biden. I think people will look differently at him tomorrow than they did a week ago. And they will maybe see his achievements and his commitment to this country more clearly.”

Axelrod also said Biden had a clear message, saying, “No one is bigger than this country. I think that is a very different message that has been emanating from Donald Trump almost from the beginning, which is, ‘The country is me. I am bigger than the country.’ I think that the contrast is very striking.”

CBS News correspondent John Dickerson talked about Biden referring to himself as the kid with a stutter, by saying, “You have the most powerful man in the world suddenly shrinking himself to a little kid as a way to tell the story of the promise of America, that no matter what your beginnings you can end up in the Oval Office. Some soaring rhetoric for a president not known for that kind of rhetoric.”

Another topic that was to surely come up was Biden’s performance — how did he sound, how did he look?

Biden certainly is not as vibrant as he once was. Particularly notable, starting with the debate, is that Biden doesn’t look nearly as strong as he did as recently as, say, the State of the Union address in March. And there have been enough appearances that it feels safe to say Biden is not going to be that energetic again. The New York Times’ Michael D. Shear described Biden as speaking “haltingly” during his speech Wednesday night.

But he still seems sharp enough to run the country.

MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle said Biden’s speech should silence those who ask how Biden can drop out of the race and yet continue to be president and finish out his term. She said, “He gave that speech as the commander in chief and there is no one who watched that who thinks, ‘He can’t possibly see out the rest of his term.’”

And MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said, “His voice may be faltering, his delivery may not be as strong as we remember it even at the beginning of this term — the presidency takes a toll, and he’s the oldest man to ever have the job, and he had this job at the time of incredible challenges — but his vision is clear.”

Over the next few days, media and political types will continue to review Biden’s speech, both in what he said and how he said it. Their political leanings likely will shape those reviews.

But remember the date: July 24, 2024. History was made.

NBC News’ Kristen Welker said, “This was a speech for the history books, just as when LBJ announced he wasn’t going to run for reelection in 1968 and we have seen those clips played and replayed throughout time. This is the type of speech that will be replayed for decades to come.”

A new debate date?

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump agreed to two debates. One was June 27, hosted by CNN. We all know how that one turned out. The next was supposed to be Sept. 10, hosted by ABC News.

But then Biden dropped out of the race and Trump started making noise about not wanting to participate in a debate hosted by ABC News. He said he is willing to debate Harris, but also has said he would prefer that Fox News host a debate.

Fox News jumped on that. The network reportedly sent a letter to the Trump and Harris camps that proposed a debate in the swing state of Pennsylvania. It would be held on Sept. 17. The letter said the exact date, location and whether there would be an audience are open to negotiation.

Reports are that the letter was signed by Fox News Media president Jay Wallace and vice president of politics Jessica Loker. They suggested that hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would be the “best choices” to moderate.

As of Wednesday night, neither the Trump nor Harris camps have responded to requests for comment

Fair question

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a White House press conference on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre held an official press briefing Wednesday — her first since Biden announced he was dropping out of the presidential race.

But it was not the first time the public had seen and heard from Jean-Pierre since Biden’s announcement. She appeared on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday.

During Wednesday’s White House news conference, she was asked about that — a legitimate and fair question. In light of the extraordinary events, why appear on a TV show before meeting with the White House press?

Jean-Pierre said, “No, I appreciate that. We’ve always had a protocol here that when the president is not here, we don’t do a briefing. That’s just the way that it has always happened.”

Biden returned to Washington on Tuesday after several days of recovering in Delaware from COVID-19.

As far as appearing on “The View,” Jean-Pierre said it had been “on the books for about two or three weeks. It was before the president made his decision. That’s it.”

Going on a TV show — especially one with mostly liberal, friendly and nonjournalist panelists — before meeting with the Washington press does seem like an ill-advised idea.

As far as not holding press conferences when the president isn’t at the White House? That might be fine as a general rule of thumb, but don’t you think you would break away from the norm when the president decides to do something that hasn’t been done since 1968?

Then again, I’m also surprised the press secretary spoke before Biden’s address from the Oval Office on Wednesday night.

One final thought: Jean-Pierre could also be winding down her time as White House press secretary, seeing as the person who hired her will not be president after Jan. 20.

More notable Biden-Harris-Trump coverage …

• The New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher with “How Kamala Harris Took Command of the Democratic Party in 48 Hours.”
• Well done reporting and graphics and design from The New York Times’ Karen Yourish and Lazaro Gamio: “‘Coup’ and ‘Cover-Up’: How the G.O.P. Is Reacting to the Harris Candidacy.”
• The Washington Post’s Caitlin Gibson with “J.D. Vance said Kamala Harris has no kids. Stepparents would like a word.”
• Entrepreneur, tech investor and former media executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is co-chair of the Harris campaign, with this guest essay for The New York Times: “Biden Did What Was Best for the Country.”
• The Wall Street Journal’s Jon Kamp, Richard Rubin and Justin Lahart with “What Would a Harris Presidency Mean for the Economy?”
• Oh, almost forgot about the guy that Politico’s Brittany Gibson and Ben Schreckinger write about in this piece: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. struggles to gain traction amid unification on both sides.”

Local news coverage

Pew Research Center has a new study out that shows most Americans follow news about local government and politics, but only a quarter of them are highly satisfied with the quality of coverage.

Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said they “often” or “sometimes” get local news about government and politics, which is more than the news they get about topics such as the economy, schools and sports. Yet when it came to satisfaction in the coverage of local political news, only 25% said they were “extremely” or “very” satisfied.

The research showed most people (70%) get their local political news from those close to them — family, friends and neighbors. But about 66% get the local political news from a local news outlet. About 54% get news from social media, although about 70% of those under the age of 30 turn to social media for news.

My Poynter colleague Angela Fu reported on the study and wrote, “One possible reason for the low satisfaction rate is that Americans have a hard time finding information about local elections. Researchers found that while 70% of participants said they are at least ‘somewhat’ interested in local elections, only 45% said it was ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ easy to find the information they need to make voting decisions.”

Fu adds, “The difficulty in accessing information about local elections comes at a time when many local news outlets are shrinking or closing down completely. More than 130 local newspapers closed or merged in 2023, according to a study by the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Roughly 56% of counties in the U.S. have one or fewer local news outlets.”

Fu has much more in her Poynter story about the Pew study.

NBA TV rights settled?

(AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

It’s done, but it’s not over.

After months of speculation and maneuvering, the NBA finally and officially announced its new TV deals on Wednesday. As expected, the TV rights deal that begins after next season will go to ABC/ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime. The deals are for 11 years and $77 billion.

ABC/ESPN will continue with their rights. NBC is getting back into the NBA for the first time since 2002. And the streaming service Amazon Prime is getting into coverage for the first time ever.

So that’s it, right?

Not so fast.

Left out is TNT, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which has carried the NBA since 1989.

Under the current deal, TNT had the right to match any other offer the NBA received for TV rights, but the league put out a statement on Wednesday that said, “Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and, therefore, we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon.”

The NBA added, “Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans. Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements. All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.”

But TNT is not going down without a fight. It posted a statement on X that said, “We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it. We think they have grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with respect to the 2025-26 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action. We look forward, however, to another great season of the NBA on TNT and Max including our iconic Inside the NBA.”

“Appropriate action,” you would guess, is taking the NBA to court.

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand wrote, “Neither side would likely want to enter a legal case, where private conversations could become public during discovery. If TNT does file a suit, it could lead to more talks and a possible compromise with other NBA rights or financial possibilities being the outcome.”

For now, this is another major step into the sports world for Amazon, which already airs the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football.” It is expected to show 66 regular-season games, as well as the NBA’s in-season tournament.

It also should be noted that this new deal also includes the WNBA, which is expected to receive a total of $2.2 billion over 11 years.

Media tidbits

• If you loved HBO’s “Succession,” you’re going to love this real-life version from The New York Times’ Jim Rutenberg and Jonathan Mahler: “The Secret Battle for the Future of the Murdoch Empire.”
• A special project from The Los Angeles Times: “California’s news industry is in steep decline. Here’s what is at stake.”
• Amanda Meade of The Guardian writes about Australian journalists: “Nine newspaper journalists to strike during Olympics over pay if management doesn’t ‘resolve the issues.’”
• For The Washington Post, John Otis with “Lewis Lapham, editor who revived Harper’s magazine, dies at 89.”
• The New York Post’s Ryan Glasspiegel with “The long-term future of ESPN’s ‘Around the Horn’ is up in the air.”

Hot type

• This section — Hot Type — often includes extensive reports about serious topics. But it’s also a spot for some fun, too. With everything so dramatic as we hurl toward the November election, how about something to look forward to? Check out this just-released movie trailer about one of our greatest songwriters and poets.

More resources for journalists

• Public media journalists: attend our Digital Transformation Project Q&A webinar Aug. 13.
• Try our free Grant Writing for Journalists self-directed course
• Lead With Influence is for leaders who manage big responsibilities but have no direct reports.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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