Media Matters searched print articles in the Factiva database from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post for any of the terms “Biden,” “Trump,” or “president” within the same headline or lead paragraph as any of the terms “age,” “mental,” “acuity,” “faculty,” “health,” “70,” “77,” “78,” “80,” “81,” “82,” “86,” “70s,” or “80s” or any variations of any of the terms “fitness,” “cognitive,” “old,” “elder,” “seventy,” or “eighty” from January 15, 2024, the date of the first caucus contest in the 2024 presidential election cycle, through June 17, 2024.
We included articles, which we defined as instances when Biden’s age or mental acuity, Trump’s age or mental acuity, or both Biden’s and Trump’s ages or mental acuities were mentioned in the headline or lead paragraphs (as designated by Factiva) in the A section of the paper. We included editorial and op-eds but not letters to the editor.
For articles that mentioned only Biden’s age or mental acuity in the headline or lead paragraphs, we considered them to be focused on Biden’s age or mental acuity; for those that mentioned only Trump’s age or mental acuity in the headline or lead paragraphs, we considered them to be focused on Trump’s age or mental acuity; for those that mentioned both Biden’s and Trump’s ages or mental acuities in the headline or lead paragraphs, we considered them to be focused on both Biden’s and Trump’s ages or mental acuities.
