I recently wrote a column on the sudden shift in coverage of the Hunter Biden scandal in the mainstream media, a shift that has coincided with widespread pieces pushing President Joe Biden to change his mind about running for reelection. As political and media figures fret about Joe Biden endangering Democratic control of Congress and the White House, there is now increased willingness to acknowledge the long buried scandal. Few are as striking as the shift of CNN’s media pundit Brian Stelter, who seems to have suddenly discovered that there are serious allegations of influence peddling by the Biden family. After previously calling the Hunter Biden story “manufactured” and “whataboutism,” Brian Stelter is now saying that the story “is not just a right-wing media story” while asking “What about his son?” For those skeptical of the sudden media-wide conversion, it sounded more like “what about his father.”
Stelter previously mocked those pushing this story as a complaint by those who do not “know how newsrooms work” while participating in a “disinformation conference” on how to shape news with insights from former President Obama and other democratic figures.
“How newsrooms work” today is precisely the concern. N.Y. Times’ Thomas Friedman recently declared “The New York Times felt it didn’t pursue it originally as much as it wanted to.” He did not explain what could possibly have overridden such journalistic interest until long after Biden’s election.
Now, with the Democratic control and its agenda in danger, the media appears to be living through a version of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Trouble with Harry.” Call it “The Trouble with Joey?” or, as Stelter suggests, “What to do with Father?”
The criminal investigation holds some promise as a way out of the inconvenient body in the White House. However, as discussed earlier, the Hunter Biden scandal must be a “controlled demolition” — the scandal has to fall precisely on a narrow foundational footprint without causing collateral damage to others in the political and media establishment.
A scandal implosion can be achieved by avoiding the obvious need for a Special Counsel and prompting a plea on narrow criminal charges. That could be enough to contain the blowback for the political and media elite while prompting the President to take a powder soon after the midterm elections. (Indeed, if the President pardoned his son, he could admit to the obvious conflict of interest and decline to run for reelection as a self-imposed consequence for his abuse of the constitutional authority).
For Stelter, the shift is more painful than most. The figures who derided those of us pushing the Hunter Biden story as engaging in “Whataboutism” was now literally asking “What about his son?” and his scandal. The point is not just hypocrisy, it is the concern of what this change is really about.
I didn’t know M. Turley was a partaker of crack. Either that or he is clueless. CNN is on the verge of a shift away from editorialized news. Brian Stelter’s show is surely going to be axed and with it, him. Stelter’s flip flop has nothing to do with his discovery of new news. It’s about job security.
Editorialized news …. Now that’s an oxymoronic whataboutism
In short and only a smal piece of a huge cake: More than eight years ago, in 4/14 Serious Fraud Office of United Kingdom launched a money laundering investigation against Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma Holdings, the largest natrual gas producer. in Ukraine. At the same time, Hunter Biden, a son of then VP and pointman to Ukraine (and China) Joe Biden.was appointed to Board of Directors [1]
Although he met with a dozend or so buisiness partner of Hunter during the time he served as VP, the president denied any knowledge of Hunters “overseas business dealings”. [2]
After NYP published emails (releated to Burisma) from “Labtop of Hell” in 10/20 50 former senior IC officers made it public that “our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case. If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.” [3] Or according to left leaning mainstream media outlets:and Big Tech: “Russian Disinformation”
After the election came to light that the Justice Department (AG Republican Bill Barr) began investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes back in 2018, but paused that investigation while Hunter’s father, Joe Biden, was running for president because might impact the election [4].
IMO we shouldn’t give Hunter Biden too much credit: Left leaning mainstream media, Big Tech and lack of loyalty of President Trumps Inner Circle “played a significant role […] how Americans vote” in 2020 Presidential Election.
[1] Salery: $ 1M/year, after father left office cut in half
[2] According to Peter Schweizer, President of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and best-selling author (eg “Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite”: Hunter Biden is “just the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to examining corruption within the Biden family during the time that Joe Biden was VP
[3] https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000
[4] https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-began-investigating-hunter-biden-in-2018-but-stopped-during-election-allegedly-due-to-doj-policy
As hard as the Dems and media have gone against Trump to, first, remove him from office and second, to discredit him in all kinds of ways (and yet have pretty much found zero, at least in the jan.6 hearings), it’s difficult for a rational mind to think that Trump’s kids are getting a pass and that Hunter and Joe are somehow being unfairly targeted. Furthermore, ZZDoc, the focus was off Hunter for well over a year when the media told us that the “laptop from hell” was a Russian plot to discredit the Bidens. And they ignored the information offered up by Tony Bobilinski. So it’s not true that “the focus has never been off Hunter,” as you claim. I’m sure that some of you in these comments are thrilled that Trump’s home was raided by the FBI. I, for one, am shocked that the FBI would be sent into a former president’s home, irrespective of which president it is. If they want documents, there are other less egregious means of obtaining them. We are living in a Banana Republic. In the last several years, Trump people have been arrested at an alarming rate, while Dems who are suspected of white collar crimes equal to those in the Trump camp are under no threat of legal action whatsoever. When politics becomes the measure of who commits crimes and who doesn’t, we’ve reached a bad place.
This is what I get when attempting to read Turley’s post from last night about the raid:
“Private post
This post exists, but you don’t have permission to read it.
If it’s a post on a private site, you need be a member of the site to view the post.”
I am a member of this site. I’ll draw no conclusions.
It takes a special kind of stupid (or tainted party clown) to believe that Hunter and his Dad are not corrupt. Reply to this and show me which one you are.
Corrupt absolutely – Criminal probably.
But the real question is why – for more than 7 years wasn’t their conduct NEWSWORTHY ?
Brian Stelter has Finally after 7 years admitted that the Biden’s conduct is a problem. Duh?
Those on the left seem to beleive that for the PRess to look critically at the misconduct of a democrat – evidence far beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime has been committed must be provided just to enquire. While for a republican, any rumor of misconduct no matter how tenuous is sufficient.
My theory of what is occurring right in front of our eyes is that Trump will be made a Martyr and Biden will be made the culprit in the never ending ping pong effect that enamors American voters. Look how Trump has been demonized for years, while trying to put the lipstick on the Biden pig.
This false paradigm has always used such demonization tactics. The thing is, tho, that they are ALL corrupt and likely criminal (or they wouldn’t be there to be controlled in the first place).
To quote Lincoln
“You can’t fool all the people all the time”.
With every bit of nonsense that the left pulls, more people realize they are not trustworthy.
Credibility is something that once lost is near impossible to get back.
My favorite part of all of this is that the excuse for not reporting on the story was that it was “Russian disinformation.” It is as if Russian spooks planting fake laptops in random PC shops to influence a presidential election is … not newsworthy?
DDDriver: A good laugh before I go to bed. Thanks! nite nite