ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: “NBC reporter’s comment about Fetterman draws criticism,” notes…AP (the Associated Press, not the artist formerly known as Allahpundit):

[NBC’s Dasha] Burns’ Friday interview with Fetterman, which aired Tuesday, was his first on-camera interview since his stroke. He used a closed-captioning device that printed text of Burns’ questions on a computer screen in front of him.

Fetterman appeared to have little trouble answering the questions after he read them, although NBC showed him fumbling for the word “empathetic.” Burns said that when the captioning device was off, “it wasn’t clear he was understanding our conversation.”

“This is just nonsense,” business reporter and podcaster Kara Swisher, who had a stroke herself in 2011, said on Twitter. “Maybe this reporter is just bad at small talk.”

Swisher recently conducted an interview with Fetterman for her podcast and said, “I was really quite impressed with how well he’s doing. Everyone can judge for themselves.” Swisher has called attacks on Fetterman because of his health “appalling.”

A New York magazine reporter, Rebecca Traister, who interviewed the candidate for a cover story titled “The Vulnerability of John Fetterman,” tweeted that his “comprehension is not at all impaired. He understands everything. It’s just that he reads it and responds in real time … It’s a hearing/auditory challenge.”

Burns said she understands that different reporters had different experiences with Fetterman.

“Our reporting did not and should not comment on fitness for office,” Burns tweeted on Wednesday. “This is for voters to decide. What we push for as reporters is transparency. It’s our job.”

Funny, I don’t remember the DNC-MSM having that standard from 2016 to 2020.

It’s exceedingly rare for leftist journalists to comment negatively on their fellow Democratic Party operatives with bylines. (Recall that Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings gave Dan Rather a pass in October of 2004, and MSNBC avoided Jeff Zucker’s scandals at the start of the year.)  This is AP’s way of telling Burns, “Nice job you have. Wouldn’t want to see anything happen to it by negatively reporting on Democrats.”

UPDATE: “Hey Siri, show me how the media treated a Republican candidate after a stroke:”