The mainstream media’s reluctance to cover the President Biden corruption story reveals how committed it is to the proposition that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy and the nation. Photo credit: AFB/Saul Loeb
In mid-July, while credible IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler testified of corrupt Biden family practices, including those that may include President Joe Biden, the fourth estate stayed largely nonplussed. How long they can continue to do so stretches credulity. Nonetheless, even after Shapley and Ziegler reported their substantial charges of corruption within the government, the dominant media had difficulty finding room for these allegations amid all the Trump indictment news. Ziegler said, “It appeared to me, based on what I experienced, that the U.S. attorney in Delaware in our investigation was constantly hamstrung, limited, and marginalized by DOJ officials, as well as other U.S. attorneys. I still think that a special counsel is necessary for this investigation.”
One can only imagine the rapt attention the Washington press would have paid to such a pronouncement involving Donald Trump or any other Republican nominee. Instead, the papers of record, the New York Times and the Washington Post, used essentially no ink in reporting these stories. What is behind the sluggish efforts to investigate?
Media personalities who comment on news shows provide much of the answer. For example, consider the Washington Post’s associate editor, Jonathan Capehart, the junior partner on PBS’ Brooks and Capehart, a weekly political analysis airing every Friday on The NewsHour. During the week of July 21, as the charges swirled around the Biden White House, Capehart, during the 11-minute segment that aired Friday evening, spent his entire time discussing the threat Donald Trump posed to democracy and why indicting him repeatedly served the nation well. Even when his counterpart, Gary Abernathy (substituting for David Brooks), mentioned the Biden news, Capehart remained committed to his talking points and unaffected from declaring Trump alone as the culprit.
The lack of interest in investigating the Biden story defies common sense but not percipience. The argument flows readily from the justification that regardless of all of Joe Biden’s shortcomings – age, mobility, mental competence, moral rectitude, personal corruption, or personality deficiencies – Donald Trump’s transgressions are greater. And spinning out from this conclusion, the press finds its moral imperative, a saying that dawns the masthead of the Washington Post, Democracy Dies in Darkness.
If the prevailing belief in the dominant media rests on the assumption that regardless of what President Biden does, the former president’s sins disqualify him from the presidency, then reporting on Biden’s corruption further threatens the nation and democracy. Accordingly, the duty of every reporter, the responsibility of all news sources, and the commission of those who deliver information must take this into account if they are patriots. Loyalty to the country demands submission to the Democratic Party, so they proclaim, especially if Republicans are irresponsible enough to nominate Donald Trump again.
Unfortunately, this narrative undergoes a daily stress-test at the House’s investigation into the Biden Family, and there is more to come. Last week, Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former business partner and close family friend of Climate Czar John Kerry testified behind closed doors in front of a Congressional body. Archer confirmed that Joe Biden did receive calls from his son Hunter during various business meetings. Attempting to diminish the damage, the press reported Archer’s testimony as nothing new and disappointing to Republicans who had hoped he would crack open the case Republicans in the House are building for an Impeachment Inquiry. What Archer said implicated the president. If Joe Biden took calls from his son, it ensured those he was trying to influence that he had the ear of his father. The press may want to depress Archer’s story, but it only raised more questions about what the President knew. Timeless inquiries like: When did he know? What did he know? How much did he know?
Archer’s testimony rocked the Administration, the Democratic Party, and the nation. Archer provided evidence that President Biden lied repeatedly about his knowledge of Hunter’s business dealings. When searching for his upcoming appearance before the committee conducting these investigations, the sources covering this matter included the New York Post, the National Review, Fox News, and other government websites or smaller publication pages. Crickets from the papers of record, nothing on the major networks or their subsidiary news outlets. But Archer validated what the recently collapsed plea deal signals:
- The scandals involving Hunter Biden include his father.
- The craven nature of the scandal includes influence-peddling schemes.
- The scandal represents a problem for Joe Biden, not a minor distraction as portrayed in the dominant media.
The mainstream sources remain reluctant to cover the Biden corruption story, revealing how committed they are to the proposition that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy and the nation. Adjacent to this belief rests the assumption that even if Joe Biden allowed Hunter Biden to siphon some money off a foreign deal, he and his administration stand on the right side of the issues. That side is sufficiently left and amply progressive in outlook and temperament. Since the Washington press brigade approves, they excuse wrongdoing because the alternative, in this case, Mr. Trump, falls far short of their wishes. This double standard applies to the former president and other Republican candidates. It stands as no defense of Mr. Trump’s actions, but the willful cover-up of President Biden’s shifting story of his son’s businesses beckons curiosity on the part of the dominant media.
The Biden Administration prides itself on two areas of law – gun control and tax evasion. During the spree of mass shootings over the past few years, Joe Biden has decried the availability of guns in the hands of bad people, yet when his son, a recovering cocaine addict, evades gun laws the Department of Justice provides a sweetheart deal. And the revelation that the younger Biden collected $11 million from foreign sources and paid no taxes should raise an eyebrow if not some full-blown interest. It does not jive with an Administration committed to hiring tens of thousands of IRS agents for the express purpose of finding delinquent taxpayers. Yet again, the Department of Justice seemed ready to okay a favourable plea deal on behalf of the president’s son while going full bore at Donald Trump.
The lack of faith average citizens express towards societal institutions does not originate as conspiratorial musings. It begins when the established authorities choose judicial winners and losers based on politics. Under Joe Biden, America’s judicial system has become partisan. One that protects its friends and punishes its opponents. The American people deserve to know the facts and a Washington press corps ready to dig for those facts regardless of where it leads.
Until then, expect a healthy skepticism in great swaths of the nation, dubious about what the press report, and resentful that they are picking sides.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who now works part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, where he earned a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
