Speculating about a politician's health is off-limits — except for when it is not, according to certain newsrooms.

Good luck figuring that one out.

Two Fox News hosts have theorized recently that former vice president and 2020 Democratic primary candidate Joe Biden, 76, may be in poor health. This week, several newsrooms rushed to condemn the Fox News hosts’ speculation. What is odd about the denunciations, however, is that these same newsrooms have had little or nothing to say about the routine and evidence-free approach to discussing President Trump’s mental and physical health.

The New Republic once published an op-ed suggesting that Trump is suffering from a mind-melting sexually transmitted disease he caught in the 1980s. Newsrooms have hosted a number of “resistance” medical authorities to speculate that the president is mentally unwell. Not a single one of these mental health professionals has performed an in-person diagnosis on the president.

The Washington Post published an op-ed in 2017 titled, “It’s time to talk about Trump’s mental health.” NBC News published an article with the headline, “Is Donald Trump's mental health becoming dangerous? Medical experts weigh in.” The Columbia Journalism Review, of all places, published a report that same year titled, “Avoiding questions about Trump’s mental health is a betrayal of public trust.”

Navy Admiral and Dr. Ronny Jackson spent nearly an hour in 2018 answering reporters’ questions — some of them downright ridiculous — about the president’s mental and physical fitness.

In all this time, it's been pretty hard to find a journalist who will criticize even outright allegations that president is an insane person on death's door.

But now, suddenly, we are back to policing idle speculation about politicians' health. Even more ridiculous than the obvious double-standard is the fact that some of the newsrooms dinging Fox News this week are the same ones who have been speculating about Trump all along. Because naturally, it is only bad when it happens to a Democrat.

The Daily Beast, for example, published a good report this week titled, “Fox News Stars Begin Pushing Rumors About Joe Biden’s Health.” But consider that the Daily Beast is also responsible for the following headlines:



How Close Is Donald Trump to a Psychiatric Breakdown?

These 27 Top Shrinks Think Trump Might Be Nuts

At CNN, editor at large Chris Cillizza authored an article Tuesday titled, “Fox News crosses the line on Joe Biden.” Cillizza has been consistent in opposing this sort of nonsense, even about Trump, but CNN has not. Here are just a few of the headlines published during Trump’s first term in office:



Yes, it's OK to question Trump's mental health

How Trump can prove he's 'very stable'

With nuclear codes in hands, why doesn't the president get a thorough mental check?

CNN's Brian Stelter once ended his show with the following remarks:

"Now, all this brings me back to those questions that are tough to ask out loud on national television. Is the president of the United States suffering from some sort of illness? Is he racist? Is he fit to be commander in chief? And one more: Is it time for objective journalists, and I don’t mean opinion folks, I mean down-the-middle journalists, to address these questions head-on and if so, how in the world do they do that?"

He is just asking questions, folks.

Then there is Vice News, which published a report this week titled, “Fox News Won’t Say Why It Lets Hosts Peddle Joe Biden Conspiracy Theories.” Speaking of conspiracy theories, enjoy the following Vice headlines:



Thousands of Mental Health Professionals Agree Trump is Dangerous

Trump's Brain and the 25th Amendment

Trump defends his own mental health — then compares his ramblings to the Gettysburg Address

Just for fun, let us look at how the ultra-progressive blog Salon has handled both issues.

“Fox News hosts amplify baseless rumors about Joe Biden’s health,” reads a headline published this week by author Tana Ganeva. Hilariously enough, Ganeva also authored the following articles:



Psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee: "Trump is an urgent threat . . . and we must no longer hesitate to act"

Psychiatrist: Trump's "hunger for his father’s stingy approval has apparently never been quenched"

Harvard psychiatrist: Donald Trump's actions are signs of a "severe, continuous, mental disturbance"

Unlike CNN, the Daily Beast, and Vice, Salon is not a real news outlet but a repository for progressive agitprop. But the fact that Salon’s hypocritical, two-faced handling of health issues is nearly indistinguishable from how legitimate news organizations have handled the matter should really tell you something.