Media has always supported Hunter Biden and will continue to do so.

Hunter Biden’s Troubles Continue to Make Headlines

Hunter Biden is once again in the news following the release of text messages that reveal President Joe Biden’s involvement with his son’s dealings with a Chinese energy company.

But will this explosive news be given the attention it deserves by the mainstream press? The media have consistently given Hunter Biden a pass and portrayed the president’s troubled son in a positive light. It seems they have no intention of changing their approach now.

THEN: The media handled Hunter Biden’s previous controversies with kid gloves. When he was discharged from the Navy for using cocaine in 2014 and when he started dating his brother’s widow in 2017, the media downplayed these incidents.

In 2019, the media dismissed allegations involving Hunter and Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, despite evidence that the Bidens were involved with a company that paid Hunter over a million dollars per year.

Trump’s lawyer Pam Bondi played a clip of Joe Biden recounting how he had pressured Ukraine to fire its prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin.

Bondi claimed that Shokin had been, in late 2015 and early 2016, “investigating Burisma.”

Four facts Bondi omitted: https://t.co/wtTczCWOLq

— CNN (@CNN) January 28, 2020

• NBC News, “There’s no evidence for Trump’s Biden-Ukraine accusations. What really happened?”

Biden’s response to Trump’s Ukraine conspiracy theory

“Trump’s doing this because he knows I’ll beat him like a drum and he’s using the abuse of power and every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me,” Biden said this weekend, telling reporters that Trump had abused his power and “violated the Constitution.”

Biden also said he’s “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”

Still, in a July profile in The New Yorker, Hunter Biden recalled a brief conversation with his father about his work in Ukraine: “As Hunter recalled, his father discussed Burisma with him just once: “Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do.'”

• New York Times, “How Joe Biden Talks About a Touchy Subject: His Son”

At issue is an unsubstantiated theory pushed by Mr. Trump that Mr. Biden took action in Ukraine as vice president in order to help his son, who at the time held a lucrative position as a board member of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.

The press went to great lengths, in collaboration with the Biden campaign, to dismiss evidence of illegal and unseemly activity found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop.

Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say https://t.co/zRdHxTxVsl

— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) October 20, 2020

Why haven’t you seen any stories from NPR about the NY Post’s Hunter Biden story? Read more in this week’s newsletter➡️ https://t.co/CJesPgmGvo pic.twitter.com/jAi7PnpbZf

— NPR Public Editor (@NPRpubliceditor) October 22, 2020

• USA Today, “A tabloid got a trove of data on Hunter Biden from Rudy Giuliani. Now, the FBI is probing a possible disinformation campaign”

When the New York Post published the alleged contents of a computer hard drive purporting to document the Ukrainian and Chinese business activities of Hunter Biden, the newspaper cast the information as a “smoking gun.”

Enter the FBI.

Less than three weeks before one of the most contentious presidential campaigns in history, federal authorities are investigating whether the material supplied to the Post by Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, is part of a smoke bomb of disinformation pushed by Russia.

Since Joe Biden was elected, the media have repeatedly downplayed negative news related to Hunter Biden, instead focusing on topics like his memoir.

• MSNBC, “James Comer’s rare skill: He can connect Hunter Biden to anything”

In other words, according to Comer, the ongoing presidential controversy might secretly be connected to the Democrat’s son.

This is a weird theory, but it’s also quite predictable. In a column from The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, published last spring, Comer’s signature preoccupation was examined.

“So, to recap,” Milbank explained, pointing to the GOP congressman’s rhetoric, “Hunter Biden controls cobalt in Congo, fentanyl in Mexico, coronavirus in Wuhan, and war in Ukraine. It is just a matter of time until Republicans find a Hunter Biden angle in Jeffrey Epstein’s demise and UFOs off the coast of California. ‘Where’s Hunter?’ went the popular refrain at Trump rallies. Now we know. In the Republican imagination, Hunter is everywhere.”

• New York Times, “White House Sets Ethics Plan for Sales of Hunter Biden’s Art”

The White House has helped develop a system for Hunter Biden to sell pieces of his art without him, or anyone in the administration, knowing who bought them, the latest effort to respond to criticism over how President Biden’s son makes his money. …

Mr. Biden has repeatedly defended his son’s work.

Hunter Biden has described painting as a form of therapy after a history of addiction to drugs and alcohol.

• NBC News, “Hunter Biden lawyer shoots down records request from House Republicans”

Hunter Biden’s legal counsel rejected a request from House Republicans for records and information related to his business dealings.

In a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., the lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the committee “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose and oversight basis for requesting such records from Mr. Biden, who is a private citizen.” Lowell said they would not comply with the Republicans’ request but offered to meet with committee members “to see whether Mr. Biden has information that may inform some legitimate legislative purpose.” …

In addition to Burisma, Republicans have also focused on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China. During his father’s vice presidency, Hunter Biden was involved with an investment firm that sought to raise money in China. In 2019, Trump urged China to investigate the Bidens and falsely accused Hunter of using a 2013 trip he took with his father to China for financial gain.

NOW: In recent days, the press has portrayed Hunter’s legal troubles as insignificant or youthful mischief from the president’s 53-year-old son.

Hunter Biden reaches agreement to resolve criminal charges, but investigations into relatives of presidents are nothing new. https://t.co/Xc80LxZnQO

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) June 21, 2023

• Associated Press, “Booze, drugs, a pet snake, and foreign dealings: Families can cause headaches for a White House”

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, recently made a plea deal on federal tax and gun charges, which has brought unwelcome headlines and headaches for the White House.

Sometimes the behavior of presidential relatives is mischievous, like when Teddy Roosevelt’s son ran his toy wagon through a painting of a first lady, or when Alice Roosevelt, Teddy’s daughter, swore, showed up at parties with her pet snake, and even called a news conference on the roof of the White House to smoke a cigarette.

• Politico recently offered readers tips on how to dismiss allegations against Hunter Biden:

— If you happen to be talking to a Hunter hater, tell them not to get their hopes up simply because prosecutors said that “[t]he investigation is ongoing.” This could mean many different things (including that the government is still looking at other possible defendants), but by all outward appearances, the Justice Department’s investigation into Hunter’s conduct is over.

— Despite the lack of evidence that the Justice Department missed serious criminal conduct, Republicans will likely continue their meandering inquiry into Hunter’s business dealings.

Since the recent news broke, the press has primarily focused on denials from the Bidens and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

A White House spokesperson says the White House had no role in decision-making regarding Hunter Biden’s federal tax investigation and, separately, that President Biden has no ties to his son’s business operations. https://t.co/g1WGs6TXbd

— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 23, 2023

Attorney General Garland disputes allegations raised by IRS agents of potential wrongdoing and political influence in the Hunter Biden case. https://t.co/GjPQraAsOh

— ABC News (@ABC) June 23, 2023

FLASHBACK: This response is a far cry from how the media treated unconfirmed allegations against a different president in recent memory.

Robert Mueller has evidence that Michael Cohen traveled to Prague in 2016, confirming a part of the Steele Dossier, according to one report. https://t.co/LqgPst2DBI

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 13, 2018

What if Trump has been a Russian asset since 1987? @JonathanChait reports. https://t.co/IQknIwGoV3

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) July 9, 2018

I used to think there wasn’t a pee tape. Now I’m a Peeliever. Here’s what changed my mind. https://t.co/OVaHyAlFoS pic.twitter.com/0fhdOqAHG6

— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) April 15, 2018