The Media Research Center spent Dec. 2, the day it was announced that President Biden had pardoned his son Hunter after years of right-wing persecution in full freak-out/rate mode. It spent Dec. 3 pretty much the same way. Tim Graham huffed:
On Monday’s CBS Mornings Plus, they brought out former Lyndon Johnson assistant Doris Kearns Goodwin to assess Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter. The 81-year-old Democrat was promoted as a nonpartisan expert, as a “Pulitzer Prize-winning historian” with six best-sellers. They oddly compared the Hunter pardon to Gerald Ford pardoning President Nixon and Abraham Lincoln pardoning deserters from the Union Army in the Civil War.
TONY DOKOUPIL: So let’s talk about Joe Biden’s pardon of Hunter. You know, I think if there hadn’t been so much sanctimony around sort of, this was a miscarriage of justice and this was a raw politics at play, if he just said, I’m a dad, I’ve already lost one son, I’m 80-something years old, I’m not going to lose another to prison time, so I’m doing it. How would it go over if he did that?
This framing completely overlooks the fact that Hunter Biden was a cash cow for the entire Biden family. It pretends there was no self-interest in Biden’s actions beyond being nice to his troubled boy.
Graham completely overlooked the fact that he and his fellow right-wing activists had spent years deliberately targeting Hunter in order to destroy him, and hopefully his father in the process. Instead, he whined: “Democrats now at this late date lament the pardon only because it offers a talking point to Trump for pardoning people who committed “crimes” like walking into the Capitol for ten minutes and taking a selfie for Facebook.” But that was a crime, however minor, and Graham is effectively endorsing lawlessness if if benefits his preferred candidate.
Alex Christy whined that late-night TV hosts didn’t go all Fox News about it:
The men of late night comedy struggled on their Monday shows to reconcile their support for President Joe Biden and his decision to pardon his son, Hunter. Some hosts decided to make the story about Republicans, while others made more “Biden is old” quips, while others welcomed the news, but hoped Democrats would apply the logic behind it to ordinary people too.
CBS’s Stephen Colbert declared on The Late Show, “I don’t know if that was the right thing to do, but you certainly earned that ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ mug.”
[…]Part of the problem with people like [Jon] Stewart and [Jimmy] Kimmel is they think history began with Donald Trump, “Look, man, the Democrats made this case an example of why Americans should believe in our system. And it is hard. Democrats have the tougher road of defending our institutions and systems as being flawed but still valuable. Republicans just run on blowing this shit up. But at every turn, Democrats keep getting caught creating a purity test they can’t seem to pass themselves.”
Christy, of course, doesn’t think Trump should ever be held to the same standards he’s holding Biden.
Jorge Bonilla lashed out at another TV host:
The Regime Media have tied themselves into knots trying to spin President Joe Biden’s not-unexpected pardon of his son and business partner Hunter. The most cynical spin of the pardon to date comes from his own former White House spokesperson, MSNBC host Jen Psaki.
Watch as Psaki tries to spin away from the pardon by diminishing both its importance and the continued relevance of President Joe Biden:
[…]In sum: yes, Joe Biden promised not to pardon Hunter, but he reneged on his promise and while it’s terrible politics, this is not so much a presidential pardon as it is a father’s love for a wayward son and who cares because Biden’s a goner anyway and isn’t Kash Patel terrible. This open, and another minute or so with Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) was the extent of Psaki’s coverage of the Biden pardon.
On the one hand, this sequence is the height of cynicism from someone who has spent the better part of the last four years lecturing America on the moral superiority of Joe Biden from her perch as his chief shill in The White House. Now that she’s moved on to Regime Media, Psaki wants to pretend that the pardon doesn’t warrant much of her attention because Biden is on his way out.
On the other hand, it wasn’t that long ago that Psaki vouched for Biden’s character on her eponymous show:
[…]With apologies to the late Coach Denny Green: Joe Biden is who we thought he was. The pardon shows that he is who we thought he was. Regime shills like Psaki are now caught coping with how to continue to look serious while sporting massive egg on their faces. After lecturing America on how character matters and casting her former boss as a sterling example of such character, Psaki now tells us that none of it matters. On to the next.
By contrast, Bonilla would never hold Trump to the same standards, which is convenient for him..
It was Curtis Houck’s turn to push the corporate narrative:
After having spent Monday morning and evening predictably defending and spinning President Joe Biden’s pardon of his scandal-ridden son Hunter, ABC News waved goodbye to this story all together on its flagship (and superficial) morning show Good Morning America. In contrast, CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today kept up the pressure, acknowledging the hullabaloo.
All three networks had segments continuing the blatant smear campaign against Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, but CBS and NBC found time to pile on the President.
“Blowback from both parties as President Biden faces criticism for the pardon of his son Hunter,” CBS co-host Tony Dokoupil declared the show’s Eye Opener.
[…]NBC was even more blunt. Co-host Hoda Kotb teased a full story on the “growing fallout” stemming from “that controversial decision” in which Biden “went back on his word.”
Nonetheless, CBS and NBC continued their refusal to call President Biden or his administration liars for going back on their words.
Trump flip-flops all the time, but Houck would never accuse him of going back on his word (not if he wants to remain employed at the MRC, anyway).
Graham got the honor, such as it is, of writing up his boss’ appearance on a right-wing radio show:
MRC founder and president Brent Bozell appeared Tuesday morning on the D.C. talk radio show “O’Connor & Company” to discuss media coverage of President Biden pardoning his son Hunter on gun and tax charges. Larry O’Connor said he had “nothing but contempt for the propagandists who call themselves ‘mainstream media,’ Brent. but I have to say it’s been so amusing watching then deal with this….trying to continue to perpetuate this myth that Joe Biden is a man with such great integrity and honesty.”
Bozell agreed: “He’s making them look like fools and they know it! They’ve spent years denying that there was a Hunter Biden problem,” suppressing the Hunter laptop in the 2020 campaign. He underlined Hunter had about 20 LLCs or shell companies to obscure all his ill-gotten gains from foreign business partners.
He said when Joe pardons Hunter, he’s also pardoning himself. “If the media had a lick — a lick! — of decency, they would have said this [pardon] was outrageous, would have said this guy had escaped justice, and the entire family has escaped justice, but instead they call it a part of his legacy!” That this is a “great family thing to do.”
If Bozell had a lick — a lick! — of decency, he wouldn’t have censored the fact that his son eagerly participated in the Capitol riot that he endorsed, hiding his crimes from MRC readers.
Nicholas Fondacaro made the pardon the center of his daily hate-watch of “The View”:
With dissenter Alyssa Farah Griffin conspicuously absent from Tuesday’s episode of The View with no explanation, after she called out President Biden for lying about pardoning is son Hunter, the more far-left members of the cast whined and lashed out at those who dared to call Biden a liar. Moderator Whoopi Goldberg argued that such talk was “hurtful” to the country, and co-host Sunny Hostin was engaging in supreme whataboutism.
After playing a series of soundbites of congressional Democrats upset with Biden for lying about not pardoning his son, Goldberg lashed out at Senator Michael Bennett (D-CO) for saying Biden’s lying was “hurtful for the American people.”
“You know what I think is hurtful for the American people? I think what is hurtful is denying that if it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander. He is the president of the United States,” she decried.
Flaunting her ignorance of the pardon process, Goldberg proclaimed that “it is his right and he doesn’t have to explain to anybody, this is his right as president. He can pardon — If he wants to pardon Bozo the Clown, he can pardon Bozo the Clown!”
“So, I’m not sure why, again, people are clutching their pearls – while the left is clutching their pearls because did y’all forget all the stuff that we said was going on or that doesn’t matter?” she huffed.
Fondacaro didn’t explain what Goldberg supposedly got wrong about the pardon process, or why Biden’s actions should be treated much more harshly than anything Trump has done, which includes inciting a riot.
The day in Hunter freakouts was concluded by Mark Finkelstein:
The liberal line on President Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter was clear: The Devil Donald Trump made him do it! On Tuesday’s CNN This Morning, former Biden communications director Kate Bedingfield said that Biden’s pardon on Hunter was “totally defensible,” given Trump’s alleged plans to go after opponents in the new administration.
No mention, of course, of Trump’s repeated vow to pardon everyone convicted of crimes in the Capitol riot regardless of demonstrated guilt.