Nothing to See Here

If you believe the media spin, Joe Biden is "empathetic,", he's a courageous decision maker, and the kind of man who should be president. Scranton Joe is, according the his campaign and their trained hamsters in the media, a "man of the people", a crusader for the middle class and minorities. He's a "moderate" whose buddy was the suddenly sainted John McCain, a guy who will "reach across the aisle" and "get things done."

All of that is unmitigated nonsense, but you'd never know it if you read and watch most mainstream media. It's the narrative, and that's that.

In the real world, Joe Biden is a mediocre politician who has accomplished little in his 47 years in public life—except one thing. He has used his position as Senator and Vice President to enrich family members—his brother, his son, Hunter Biden, and to a lesser extent, his sister.

Joe Biden is corrupt in the way that most politicians are corrupt, but because he's a Democrat, he knows that in the 21st century he's bullet proof. That's why he can claim that serious and evidence-based allegations of influence pedaling, supported by facts and even his own words, are "unsubstantiated" or "disproven." His media pals won't ask him hard questions, won't investigate and, more ominously, will actively bury any news item that demonstrates who the real Joe Biden is.

This week, The New York Post released a bombshell story that ties Joe Biden directly to the Ukrainian machinations that made his son, Hunter Biden, infamous and rich. Here's a snippet:

Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company, according to emails obtained by The Post.

The never-before-revealed meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, allegedly sent Hunter Biden on April 17, 2015, about a year after Hunter joined the Burisma board at a reported salary of up to $50,000 a month.

“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” the email reads.

An earlier email from May 2014 also shows Pozharskyi, reportedly Burisma’s No. 3 exec, asking Hunter for “advice on how you could use your influence” on the company’s behalf.

The blockbuster correspondence — which flies in the face of Joe Biden’s claim that he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings” — is contained in a massive trove of data recovered from a laptop computer.

The computer was dropped off at a repair shop in Biden’s home state of Delaware in April 2019, according to the store’s owner.

Biden's response team flew into action, claiming all of this is just a "conspiracy" and his protectors at Facebook and Twitter literally banned the story and shadow banned the reporters who wrote it. The New York Times (in an epic example of blatant hypocrisy) wouldn't run the story claiming that the information was hacked (it wasn't) and that it wasn't "100% verified." As if they used that standard when they reported on a wholly unsubstantial allegation of rape made by a sketchy partisan against SCOTUS nominee and now Justice Brett Kavanaugh, or when they ran with a wholly unsubstantiated story that Donald Trump dissed military veterans.

Where's the intrepid crusader for the truth, Carl Bernstein? Where are the vaunted investigative journalists at the Washington Post? Where are the reports on CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN? Where's Sixty Minutes? Where's the Sunday morning crusader, Chuck Todd? Where are the reporters who travel every day with Biden (when he's not in the basement)? 

MIA ... that's where.

Today, Biden is cognitively disabled and may not even remember the meeting he had with the Ukrainian businessman, but gosh, much thinner stuff than that was used to impeach Donald Trump. 

I'll admit, Biden isn't as cunning or as corrupt as O.G. Hillary Clinton, but it is fascinating that the past two Democrat candidates for president used their previous public office over many years to enrich themselves and their families. 

But the trained hamsters circle the wagons and tell us, "Nothing to see here, move along."

UPDATE:

James Freeman discusses the utter journalistic hypocrisy of the New York Times:

News consumers should be gratified to know that the New York Times has decided it will demand the highest journalistic standards—at least from its crosstown rivals. Just three days after a Times writer formally announced that the newspaper is transitioning “from the stodgy paper of record into a juicy collection of great narratives,” Times staff is now attacking the juiciest narrative of the 2020 campaign.

The kerfuffle began with a story published this morning in the New York Post, a Times rival which, like the Journal, is owned by News Corp ... 

There’s no question it’s a juicy narrative, and the Post’s principal source, former New York Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, says it’s going to get juicier. Mr. Giuliani tweets today:

Emails from Hunter Biden’s hard drive reveal Joe Biden lied about BURISMA.

Much more to come.

But the Times doesn’t seem to like this particular juicy narrative, and some of its employees have taken to Twitter to raise questions about the account. For example Maggie Haberman wonders why Senate government affairs committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) never found such evidence:

Things that are sketchy in NYP story on Hunter Biden - why wasn’t this in Ron Johnson report if it’s been in possession for awhile? When did Giuliani acquire it? Giuliani has been everywhere on the but this has been kicking around since late last year and unreleased till now?

It seems that reinstating the stodgy traditions of journalism is the Times policy when a narrative heads in a dangerous political direction.

Indeed it does.