The Hunter Biden scandal is a story that for years the legacy media either systemically downplayed or completely ignored. Critics have wondered what would be the boiling point for the media to finally take the controversy seriously. Perhaps that moment has come.
On Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss – who had been overseeing the DOJ’s investigation into President Biden’s son since 2018 – as special counsel, marking an unprecedented chapter in the legal woes plaguing the White House. Coverage that the special counsel appointment has ignited is a stunning pivot from how many news organizations have portrayed the family drama.
The Washington Post’s editorial board, for example, declared on Saturday that Hunter Biden “shouldn’t get special treatment,” telling readers that critics of the plea agreement he previously made with the DOJ before it fell apart in court “might have been right” all along that it was a “sweetheart deal.”
But in June, the Post editorial board called the deal “justified,” saying the “sitting president’s son being held accountable for underpaying his taxes illustrates that no one is above the law in the U.S. system.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper admitted Republicans have “legitimate questions” regarding Weiss’ appointment as special counsel. He even went so far as to say that the IRS whistleblowers who’ve come forward accusing the DOJ of interfering in the Hunter Biden probe might be “right” with their allegations.
Not only did CNN not air the IRS whistleblower testimony live as it was happening on Capitol Hill, Tapper himself chalked up the House Oversight’s recent findings about the shady overseas business dealings of the Biden family as being “sleazy” but seeing no evidence of a crime.
CNN, like the other liberal networks, avoided coverage of the infamous laptop or cast doubt on it when it first surfaced in October 2020 and shed light on Hunter Biden’s questionable foreign transactions. Tapper himself expressed outrage about the attention it was getting on the political right.
“The right-wing is going crazy with all sorts of allegations about Biden and his family. Too disgusting to even repeat here,” Tapper told a panelist at the time. “I mean, some of the ones I’ve seen from the president’s son and some of the president’s supporters are just wildly unhinged.”
Fourth Watch editor Steve Krakauer believes a few factors have caused the shift in the media’s coverage of the Hunter Biden allegations coverage, and like most things a “confluence of all of the above” likely resulted in the sudden pivot.
“The first, and most cynical, interpretation is that Joe Biden is tied with Donald Trump in the polls in a head-to-head matchup. That’s stunning, to the Acela Media, and shows how truly vulnerable Biden is — and, in their minds, America is. If Biden is going to get pushed out, now’s the time. And the media can help, by using the corruption news to seal the deal,” Krakauer told Fox News Digital.
Krakauer, who has worked at a variety of news organizations including CNN, feels the second “less cynical reason is that the plea deal falling apart feels like a true before-and-after moment” for the media.
“It caused any objective person to step back and say ‘wait a minute’ — even the press that would have generally been adhering to the ‘Biden did nothing wrong’ line. It’s why we’re getting the special counsel now,” Krakauer said. “And it’s why the media is starting to at least toe the line of looking into what the IRS whistleblowers are saying, and taking the entire ordeal a bit more seriously.”
The third reason identified by Krakauer is that the corporate press simply cannot ignore scandals surrounding the president’s son anyway longer, no matter how badly it wants to.
“Hunter Biden’s laptop was eventually verified by the New York Times, CNN and others. Years too late, mind you, but eventually. There can only be so much smoke — endless smoke, with WhatsApp messages, and testimony from legitimate whistleblowers, bank records, etc — before they have devote some resources into seeing if there’s fire,” he said. “And I do believe that’s happening now, finally. The story is legitimate. And true journalists know it — and they’re starting to treat it as such, finally.”
All four of the liberal Sunday shows — CNN’s “State of the Union,” ABC’s “This Week,” CBS’ “Face The Nation” and NBC’s “Meet the Press” – covered the special counsel appointment in the Hunter Biden this past weekend. Those same shows just the week prior avoided the damning testimony from Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer, who told lawmakers Hunter would put his father, the then-vice president, on speakerphone during meetings with business associates at least 20 times.
DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall feels the media has not yet “gone full bore on covering the Hunter Biden allegations” and feel “it has taken them many years to finally recognize the obvious news value of the Biden family shenanigans” as the president seeks re-election.
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“It is worth noting, first, that this media coverage is still rather limited and not being done with the enterprise or determination of all things Trump over the years. The media coverage, such as it is, is still rather narrow in scope and limited largely to what is coming out of congressional hearings,” McCall told Fox News Digital.
“At a certain point, however, the media just had to recognize that there are, indeed, possible broader and newsworthy aspects to Hunter Biden’s machinations, if for no other reason than to save some journalistic face,” McCall continued. “To keep looking the other way and dismissing the Hunter story risked what little credibility the mainstream media still has.”
Politico recently reported the behind-the-scenes election drama on how the Hunter Biden saga “will doggedly shadow his father’s reelection campaign” and how it “adds fuel to a storyline that many on the right have feverishly gripped as the key to the president’s political downfall.”
However, Politico was the same outlet that published the 2020 open letter from over 50 former intelligence officials who heavily suggested the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian disinformation.”
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While many reliably liberal news outlets have taken notice of Hunter Biden, Fox News contributor Joe Concha still isn’t satisfied with much of the coverage.
“Frankly, they’re still missing the bigger story, and it appears intentional. These bribery allegations aren’t so much about Hunter Biden, who holds no office, but Joe Biden, and specifically his actions as vice president,” Concha told Fox News Digital before suggesting questions America should want answers to.
“Why would a sitting vice President ever get on as many as 20 phone calls with his son’s overseas business partners? How about attending dinners with Hunter’s business partners? And no, it wasn’t to talk about the weather. It was to underscore the access to power in real time,” Concha said.
Concha feels the focus should be on a much more impactful story than simply what Hunter was up to.
“Did Joe Biden profit from his son’s business dealings and is he compromised by foreign adversaries including China and Russia? Because if that’s the case, this makes Watergate look like jaywalking,” Concha said.
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Fox News’ David Rutz contributed to this report.
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