Want to watch a left-leaning TV journalist quickly change the subject? Just mention Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden.
“For news shows on MSNBC, CNN and other cable networks, nothing is more disgusting than the mention of what Hunter Biden actually was doing in Ukraine,” law professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University writes in The Hill.
“What is most remarkable about the paucity of coverage of Hunter Biden’s dealings,” he adds, “is the conclusory mantra that, ‘This has all been investigated.’”
Turley, 58, a native of Chicago, cites examples of MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace cutting away from a speech by President Trump when he started to discuss the Bidens; NBC’s Chuck Todd accusing Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., of trying to “gaslight” viewers by referencing the Bidens while answering a question about Ukraine; and CNN’s Erin Burnett switching to a discussion of President Trump when Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., tries to discuss the Bidens.
Pressure directly from the Biden campaign may be at least partly to blame, Turley writes.
“Indeed, the Biden campaign has been remarkably open in demanding that news organizations stop airing interviews or publishing articles about the allegations,” according to Turley. “Instead of calling it ‘fake news’ (which is virtually copyrighted by Trump), the Biden campaign calls such coverage ‘conspiracy theories.’”
One recent example Turley cites was when CNN reported that Biden campaign official Kate Bedingfield wrote to executive editor Dean Baquet of The New York Times, chastising the newspaper for running an article by “Clinton Cash” author Peter Schweizer titled, “What Hunter Biden Did Was Legal – That’s the Problem.”
Turley also points to a Reuters report that said the Biden campaign tried to convince Facebook, Twitter and Google not to run a campaign ad for President Trump.
The professor does not disparage the media for looking into the overseas business deals of the Trump family. But he says “there is no reason why the media cannot pursue allegations against both the Trumps and the Bidens.”
His conclusion: Investigating the Bidens “would counter the narrative that there’s ‘nothing wrong’ with Hunter Biden’s dealings and that it’s all a ‘lie’ that’s best to ignore.”
