Before the right-wing Hunter Biden-bashing narrative got blown up by a dishonest informant, the Media Research Center was getting its usual licks in (read: parroting Biden-bashing narratives). Here are a few we hadn’t previously highlighted:
- ABC/CBS/NBC CENSOR Latest Hunter Art Deal Bombshell
- Missing The Point: Kimmel Claims House Produced More X-Rated Hunter Pics Than Bills (Comedy cop Alex Christy huffed in response: “Yes, there have been some X-rated pictures of Hunter Biden shown by members of Congress, but the influence peddling is why he is at the center of their investigation.”)
- FINALLY! DOJ Confirms Hunter’s Laptop Was Real But ABC/CBS/NBC Censor
And Tim Graham got all snarky in a Jan. 7 post:
Friday’s New York Post had fun with the front-page news that Hunter Biden’s so-called “sugar brother,” Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, is backing a “gauzy” Hunter Biden documentary.
Reporters Melissa Koenig and Ryan King reminded readers that according to IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler, Morris has given Hunter $4.9 million — covering expenses including overdue tax bills, legal fees, housing, and car payments. “At least one loan to Hunter from Morris, for at least $1.2 million in 2020, carried interest and requires repayment beginning in 2025.”
Hunter sued Ziegler and another IRS whistleblower, Gary Shapley, in September, accusing them of trying to “target and “embarrass” him.
Graham didn’t explain why Hunter should not be allowed to defend himself — indeed, the MRC gets irrationally angry whenever he does.
But after the revelation that informant Alexander Smirnov was arrested for telling the FBI the lie that a Ukrainian company had paid Hunter and President Biden $5 million each in bribes — which forced the MRC to alter dozens of posts, though it still has refused to tell its readers it has done so — the torrent of Hunter-hate from the MRC slowed down considerably. It initially tried to find its footing in complaining that all the Hunter-hate — and its apparently ulterior motive of driving him to suicide in order to destroy his father — was called out. Nicholas Fondacaro whined in a Feb. 28 post:
In an interview with Axios earlier this week, Hunter Biden suggested that the scrutiny congressional Republicans had him under was “maybe the ultimate test for a recovering addict;” the outlet also shared President Biden’s private fear that they could cause his son to relapse. And during CNN’s Inside Politics on Wednesday, host Dana Bash and Justice correspondent Evan Perez took the concern as legitimate and wagged their proverbial finger at Republicans on Capitol Hill.
According to Hunter, the future of America hinged on his ability to maintain sobriety. “I have always been in awe of people who have stayed clean and sober through tragedies and obstacles few people ever face. They are my heroes, my inspiration (…) I have something much bigger than even myself at stake. We are in the middle of a fight for the future of democracy,” he told Axios.
[…]Of course, all of this was said in the shadow of Hunter finally giving closed-door testimony to Congress about his shady business dealings.
Fondacaro failed to mention the dozens of MRC posts that had to be altered to address Smirnov’s false testimony. Graham whined further about this in his podcast that day:
As Hunter Biden headed into closed-door testimony in the Biden impeachment inquiry, Axios reported Hunter thinks there are “profound consequences” in his staying sober. “I have something much bigger than even myself at stake. We are in the middle of a fight for the future of democracy.” Nobody wants to rest democracy on those chances.
MRC Director of Media Analysis Geoffrey Dickens joins the show to discuss his latest list of shocking Biden influence-peddling stories that drew “ZERO seconds” of air time. Why do they ignore it? So they can run these preposterous denials like Hunter Biden claiming “I did not involve my father in my business.”
Graham then hyped how “the New York Post and other media outlets have reported stories the networks energetically ignored” — but his writeup censored any mention of Smirnov’s false testimony.
After Hunter offered closed-door testimony to a hostile House committee, Jorge Bonilla complained in a Feb. 29 post — with the ridiculous headline “The Praetorian Media Line Up to Protect the Prince and the Precious” — that non-right-wing media, unlike he and his co-workers, referenced Smirnov:
Hunter Biden went to the Capitol for his closed-door deposition with the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees. This is his makeup day for the depo he blew off in order to deliver a tirade from behind a podium before stomping off the Capitol grounds. The network newscasts fell in formation today, focused on protecting the Bidens and disqualifying the proceedings.
Coverage was nearly identical across the Big Three, touching on some of the same thematic points: a quote from Hunter’s statement denouncing the investigation and calling for it to end, a brief summation of what the investigation is about, and some version of the Smirnov Hoax, to wit: that the controversial FBI FD-1023 (record of confidential informant meeting with agent) with its allegedly false statements contained therein is the entirety of the evidence upon which the impeachment inquiry hinges.
Of the three, ABC’s coverage was the most extensive and most partisan. Here’s correspondent Rachel Scott, dutifully reciting the Smirnov Hoax:
Bonilla desperately tried to spin away Smirnov’s lies:
Of course, this is patently false. The impeachment inquiry was NOT built largely on the FD-1023. There is also the trove of documents contained within the laptop, the damning testimony of the IRS whistleblowers, testimony from Hunter’s several business partners, and the evidence collected in furtherance of Hunter’s indictment on tax charges. But suggesting that the whole thing hangs on the FD-1023 makes it easier to dismiss the whole thing as little more than a fake partisan sham.
Scott carried the Democrats’ water during a gaggle with House Oversight Chair James Comer, by suggesting that Smirnov’s indictment somehow made the impeachment inquiry illegitimate.
But if Smirnov is lying, why shouldn’t the possibility be raised that other informants may be lying as well? Bonilla doesn’t seem to want to talk about that.
In another post that day, Graham grumbled that non-right-wing media didn’t spread the Hunter-hate the way his beloved right-wing rag the New York Post did:
How can we know just how the major newspapers have a pro-Biden bias? When they present Hunter Biden as the hero and moral authority of his own testimony in the Biden impeachment probe.
First, they submerge the story, and then the framing is in contempt of the factual record. Hunter can say he’s never involved Joe in his business — when it should be obvious to a fifth-grader that this is a lie — but they run with it anyway.
The New York Post offered the anti-Biden framing of Hunter’s evasive, sometimes laughable testimony yesterday, under the online headline for their cover story.
Again, Graham was silent about Smirnov. It’s as if he doesn’t want to admit that the entire right-wing anti-Hunter narrative has been seriously undermined.