In July, Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell sat down for an interview with Donald Trump Jr. (And we thought the MRC hated softball interviews.) An excerpt posted to NewsBusters featured Don Jr. spouting the MRC’s anti-“Big Tech” narrative against “censorship” of conservatives online (though no proof was offered that mainstream conservatives are solely being targeted), but the MRC’s “news” division, CNSNews.com, was given a clip of Don Jr. unironically accusing Hunter Biden of trying to cash in on his father’s presidency:
“People have to wake up; they have to get their news from alternative sources,” Donald Trump, Jr. tells Media Research Center President Brent Bozell in an exclusive interview discussing the left-wing media’s bias and hypocrisy when it comes to the treatment of presidents’ family members.
The former First Son explains that, while his father was in the White House, the liberal media would never have allowed him to claim to be an artist and sell paintings for half a million dollars to anonymous buyers, as President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, is doing.
Even some Picassos sell for far less than what Hunter is charging, and yet the media looks the other way, Trump, Jr. says:
“I take that one pretty personally, because I went through a lot. What do you think would happen, Brent, if for, I don’t know, for example, Donald Trump, Jr. started finger-painting, like Hunter Biden, and started selling them to unknown buyers for half a million dollars?
Bozell positioned this issue in an incredibly softball way, effectively playing T-ball with Don Jr. He made no mention of the fact that Don Jr. did, in fact, cash in on his father’s presidency to perhaps an even greater degree than Hunter Biden was accused of doing.
The big one was that the Republican National Committee bought $300,000 worth of copies of Don Jr.’s book — a massive bulk purchase that dishonestly put the book on the bestseller list. Interestingly, Don Jr. self-published his book, so gets all to keep that RNC money for himself. Bozell even plugged the book in question, “Liberal Privilege,” during the interview, but at no point did he acknowledge it became a best-seller because the RNC bought a bunch of copies — the epitome of cashing in on a presidential father’s fame.
But there’s more: In 2019, Don Jr. made $50,000 for giving a single speech, and as Business Insider summarized: “He also works at his father’s company, overseeing the business empire since his father took up the presidency. Most of his present-day media profile comes from discussing his father and his presidency.”
No MRC employee is ever going to call out Bozell for his softball interview of Don Jr. — not if they want to keep their job, that is.