Friday, December 11, 2020

Democracy dies in darkness, and how

With the Hunter Biden whitewash, the mainstream media drops the mask once and for all.  David Harsanyi: "The media's disgraceful Hunter Biden cover-up."
It's now clear that the Hunter Biden story was real, with Hunter himself acknowledging a federal probe into his taxes — one that reportedly began in 2018. Really, it was always clear. Yet, when the New York Post broke the details, virtually the entire journalistic establishment and left-wing punditsphere defamed the newspaper, claiming it was passing on Russian “disinformation” or partisan fabrications.

The political media quickly began pumping out process stories about the alleged discord in the Post’s newsroom and about the problems with the reporting. In so doing, of course, they did practically no reporting on the substantive allegations that Joe Biden’s family had spent years cashing in on his influence. Tech companies, spurred on by these censorious journalists, shut down the account of one of America’s most-read newspapers to inhibit users from reading the story. It was completely unprecedented.
Unprecedented, yet not unexpected.  The New York Post, which broke the original story, is understandably reminding everyone where the real collusion was:
“Collusion” was perhaps the media’s favorite word these past four years, even when it wasn’t true. But you know what real collusion looks like? It’s when left-leaning media, that is the media in general, decide en masse that something is “not a story” because it harms their preferred political candidate.

That’s a key takeaway from Wednesday’s bombshell news revealing a federal probe of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, that reportedly involves e-mails from his laptop — which The Post reported on exclusively in October. We even noted back then that the FBI had seized the computer and hard drive; Fox News later confirmed that it was part of an FBI money-laundering probe.

Other media outlets didn’t just ignore the story; they tried to suppress it. Then social media stepped in, preventing the story from being posted (Facebook) and even banning The Post (Twitter).
Twitchy's Media section is jam-packed with the receipts from "news" outlets who either ignored the story or actively worked to discredit it.

Now it's our turn.

Now the Republican-controlled Senate will be charged - turbocharged - to grill any nominee for Attorney General since "nobody is above the law" as we've been reminded a jillion times.  Oh, dear, Manafort was convicted on money laundering and tax evasion from his business in a foreign nation?  Well, it's great to have that precedent staring us in the face.  And I guess the precedent of really, really wanting to see somebody taxes - just because - will come in handy.

It's going to be great.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Far easier just to repost David Frum's string of tweets on the subject:

“The story that its author at the NY Post refused to sign? That relied on a source who has since vanished with no known address? The story that your colleagues at the news divisions of the Wall Street Journal and Fox News refused when it was shopped to them before the NY Post agreed to act as publisher of last resort? That story?

Hunter Biden's dubious business activities have been reported for years. [Such as] The Atlantic in September 2019, [more than a] year *before* the NY Post.

That emails attributed to Hunter Biden were circulating was also known well before the NY Post story in October. [Here is a earlier report from] Time Magazine.

What the NY Post added to the work earlier done by others was a new *origin* story for the materials that circulated in Ukraine in 2019. When other media organizations attempted to corroborate that story, hijinks ensued.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/man-who-reportedly-gave-hunters-laptop-to-rudy-speaks-out-in-bizarre-interview

I doubt that anybody at any responsible media organization holds any particular brief for Hunter Biden. I sure don't. If he did wrong, he should face the consequences. But Hunter Biden's legal situation was not what was at issue with the NY Post report.

What was at issue in the NY Post story were these two questions: "Is this material about Hunter Biden being promoted by Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani genuine? If yes, where does this material come from?"

In November 2019, Russian spy agencies hacked servers at Burisma, the Ukrainian company on whose board Hunter Biden sat. The NYTimes reported in January 2020:
"Experts say the timing and scale of the attacks suggest that the Russians could be searching for potentially embarrassing material on the Bidens - the same kind of information that Mr. Trump wanted from Ukraine when he pressed for an investigation of the Bidens and Burisma, setting off a chain of events that led to his impeachment."

David Frum: "When the Trump White House shopped purported Hunter Biden materials to reputable news organizations like the Wall Street Journal, reporters went to work verifying authenticity and sourcing. That process unnerved the Trump White House and its allies.

The Trump White House and its allies wanted their purported Hunter Biden materials to be published with no uncomfortable questions asked about its authenticity and its origins. For that, they turned to the New York Post.

Even after the NY Post published, the Trump team still refused other media organizations the information they needed to verify the NY Post story. This behavior - plus the selective leaking to pro-Trump outlets that didn't bother with verification - naturally sowed suspicion.

Now there's a new report on DoJ investigation of Hunter Biden's activities. That report is of course something every media organization will want to dig deeper into.

But those latest stories, properly sourced, do not confer retrospective rehabilitation on what the NY Post was doing in October - or on the Trump White House officials doing Trump campaign work at taxpayer expense.”

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1337411482913476615


Anonymous said...

Now it's our turn.
Now the Republican-controlled Senate will be charged - turbocharged - to grill any nominee for Attorney General since "nobody is above the law" as we've been reminded a jillion times. Oh, dear, Manafort was convicted on money laundering and tax evasion from his business in a foreign nation? Well, it's great to have that precedent staring us in the face. And I guess the precedent of really, really wanting to see somebody taxes - just because - will come in handy.
It's going to be great.



Republicans may rediscover their oaths of office? OH NO!

Thank goodness that “Take your so-called ‘subpoenas’ and shove them up your ass” is also now a precedent.

Brian Stelter said...

Looks like it's time to update the whirling dervish's evolving spin on Popgate with his newest characterization. The record so far:

1. Hey, look at Facebook and Twitter kick Trump in the nuts!
2. RUSSIANS! selected Giuliani as their target to ferry the fake Hunter material, and the White House knew it!
3. It's Russian disinformation and the FBI are investigating Rudy.
4. A NY Post reporter who wrote the article thinks the material might not be credible.
5. Giuliani purposely gave it to a sympathetic outlet.
6. Fox News thinks it might not be credible.
7. Chris Wallace thinks the story is "suspicious."
8. Muh Polls.
9. Rudy contradicts the FBI and admits it's not authentic.
10. I'm going to delegitimize Popgate by investigating predictions you made in the past.
11. No one cares about the genuine Hunter laptop material I tried so hard to discredit.
12. The emails and corrupt China and Ukraine business deals are real, but Pop wasn't involved.
13. All the shady dealings exposed by the laptop turn out to actually be a Trump scandal.

And the latest installment:

14. Every media organization is eager to dig deeply into the FBI's criminal investigation of Popgate.

Anonymous said...

Apparently all stages of grief are named "Hunter Biden."

Brian Stelter said...

...and all causes of sleeplessness apparently have the same name.

Anonymous said...

The problem:
How do you leave your sadness hole, but avoid talking about yet another botched prediction, or the punishing loss, or your Republican Party's retarded sedition?

The solution:
Hunter Benghazi!

Brian Stelter said...

The official name for this scandal is Popgate, so please be accurate in your references. Hunter Benghazi is not approved, but if you must, an acceptable variant would be Hunter Bengha-Xi. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pubd-spHN-0&ab_channel=CadyHeron