Politics
Media Must Do Job on Hunter Biden Scandal
This past week we saw why many people in America don't trust the media and believe them to be biased, including social media giants Twitter and Facebook. A recent Gallup and Knight Foundation poll found Americans are deeply concerned about what they see as media bias, yet also believe an unbiased press is important to our constitutional republic.
This week will do little to restore our faith in our press outlets.
The fourth most read paper in the United States, the New York Post, founded by America's current favorite Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, ran a story purporting to detail damaging information on Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. As of this writing, the Biden campaign has not denied the veracity of the main points of the story. That should be troubling to all of us.
The Post claims it is in possession of a hard drive once belonging to Hunter Biden, and it not only contains scandalous details about Hunter's private life but may, or may not, hold key information implicating Joe Biden in a major lie.
Joe Biden has said on numerous occasions he “never” talked business with his son or had any involvement with his family's businesses dealings (according to USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Daily Beast, and more).
Up until the release of the Hunter Biden hard drive, we know Joe Biden's “never” admission was less than truthful, at least according to Hunter Biden. In July 2019 in the New Yorker magazine, Hunter Biden admitted he did speak to his father regarding his business dealings in the Ukraine, “just once.” Considering the past history Joe and Hunter Biden have with the truth, and the tidal wave of damaging data surrounding these business dealings, how can either of them be trusted?
Joe Biden, NEVER talked to his son about his overseas business dealings, he just hung out with his partners. pic.twitter.com/hJKZ1bquRk
— James M Neal (@The_PCexpert) October 20, 2020
It is incumbent to the integrity of our nation that we know if the potential next president (Joe Biden) is knowingly a participant in a kleptocratic scheme that, if true, would be another blow to an already fragile foundation of public trust in our government.
This story is comprised of Hunter Biden‘s self-destructive lifestyle and his business dealings. Some in the press have expressed concern the more salacious details of Hunter's personal life should be off-limits. Yet, let us not forget that when the E News tape broke in October 2016, along with various Trump marital affairs, the press found those stories to be fair game and vital news.
But now when such stories involve the scandal-plagued son of Joe Biden, the media finds such details beneath the dignity of their profession and publications. Nice to see the press has finally found their scruples. However, to that point, as much as Hunter's destructive lifestyle is fair game, the more important part of this story has to do with the Bidens' business dealings.
Within the thousands of emails on Hunter Biden's hard drive, as well as details featured in such books as “The Biden Deception” and “Profile in Corruption,” we see a pattern of influence pedaling and corruption, or as a recent feature in the Wall Street Journal describes (referencing the Biden laptop), “A Laptop Window on the Oligarchy.” The Biden family's dealings with less than reputable companies, such as Burisma and Paradigm Global Advisors, and countries prone to corruption (Ukraine, China, etc.) are real.
For over two years Joe Biden has claimed to be “ignotum per ignotius (unknown by the more unknown).”
Information on this hard drive, as well as from Hunter Biden's imprisoned ex-partner Bevan Cooney and numerous less-published news articles, seems to contradict this story.
For two years Joe Biden made the laughable claim he never discussed business with his son or involved himself in Hunter's affairs. If this is true, it shows poor judgment not worthy of the presidency. If false, he would be complicit in a kleptocracy, and has been for most of his public life.
Worse still, it would also mean the press failed to do their job. They either ignored the countless stories of Biden corruption, or worse, downplayed the shady Biden foreign dealings with Ukraine and China (as detailed by Peter Schweizer at the Government Accountability Institute, www.g-a-i.org, as well as the works of investigative journalists Ryan Grim, Ben Schreckinger and George Neumayr).
If Joe Biden was more forthcoming, he knows like his other two campaigns for president, this campaign would have ended long ago because of a self-imposed scandal. One of the emails suggested Hunter Biden did try to arrange a meeting with Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, and that Hunter did have a conversation about his business dealings.
Had this hard drive been a “Trump hard drive” containing the same sort of materials, there would be no doubt CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, N.Y. Times, ABC and CBS would have led with this story, and most likely inundated us with wall-to-wall coverage.
Let us not forget this is the same media that had no problem reporting on the discredited Steele Dossier (a product bought and paid for by the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton), and spending another three years chasing a Russian collusion story that was a fairy tale.
Nor did they have any issue running with The Atlantic's claims that Trump badmouthed deceased members of our military, a story that was contradicted by over 20 witnesses. The news media functioned like a drive-by shooter, rolling up and throwing one scandalous allegation after another regarding Trump. Granted, some are true, but most are not or unverified. Yet now the media believes we should proceed cautiously. Isn't that quaint.
For two years the same media dismissed this story, saying there was nothing to the possible Biden-Ukraine corruption, even calling it a conspiracy theory. Now this is the media's opportunity. They can investigate the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop and prove the story false, which would be a long-awaited victory for the national press and help to serve the end goal of many in the press: Elect Joe Biden. Or, prove the information true, and live up to their obligation to report the news, even if it is counter to what they want.
Twitter and Facebook faced harsh backlash by claiming the material was “hacked material.” So was President Trump's tax information, yet Facebook and Twitter did nothing to stop that story from being posted. Now, the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved subpoenas to the Twitter and Facebook CEOs for testimony related to their censorship of the N.Y. Post's Hunter Biden story.
Whatever may come of this story, it proves the press, whether they admit it or not, has a credibility issue. The charges by the American people that the media is biased can be seen in how they handled (or didn't handle) this scandal.
Jeff Chidester was raised in Portsmouth and is a lifelong resident of New Hampshire. He is radio host and political analyst for iHeart Radio – NH, which can be heard on New Hampshire's News/Talk Network: WQSO – 96.7 FM and New WGIR – 610 AM. You can find out more about Jeff by going to www.jeffchidester.com and you can email him at [email protected]. The views expressed are those of the writer.
© Copyright © 2020 The Portsmouth Herald. All rights reserved.
UP NEXT:
