Don't be shocked, but the Senate report on Hunter Biden's sleazy activities abroad wasn't covered on the network evening news or morning news shows of ABC, CBS, and NBC in the last 24 hours.
The PBS NewsHour managed to offer an anodyne 59 words:
JUDY WOODRUFF: Two committees in the GOP-run Senate have issued a report on Hunter Biden's work for a gas company in Ukraine. It alleges that his involvement posed the appearance of a conflict of interests for his father, then Vice President Joe Biden. The Biden presidential campaign dismissed it as an obvious effort by Senate Republicans to influence the November election.
On the other hand, Woodruff ended her show with an eight-minute tribute to Ruth Ginsburg, "cultural icon." When it ended, she added: "And you've got to love every bit of it."
No. You don't.
Nexis couldn't find a Hunter Biden mention so far from the Russophobes at CNN. Actually, they dismissed the Senate report in advance the night before on The Situation Room and Anderson Cooper 360.
NPR didn't offer a segment on All Things Considered or on Morning Edition. (Their hourly news briefs are not online.)
Newspapers covered it. The most head-slapping headline came in The New York Times, on page A-15: "Republicans' Inquiry Finds No Wrongdoing By Biden in Ukraine."
This was echoed at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, with local hack Craig Gilbert dismissing Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson: "Johnson report on Hunter Biden offers no evidence of wrongdoing."
The Washington Times also aimed at a head-slapper, on purpose:
Adam Schiff says of GOP report on Hunter Biden: 'The Kremlin must be very pleased'
Let's interrupt the headlines to note Rachel Maddow briefly mentioned the report on MSNBC, very aggressively providing the Schiff spin:
MADDOW: Senator Johnson doesn`t have anything on Joe Biden or his family, but he did produce an 80-something page report today that turns out is a pretty good index as to what Russian intelligence has been cooking up this year to try to help Trump get reelected. And this time, they`re doing it with a knowing assist from the elected Republican U.S. senator who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, even after the FBI explicitly warned against it.
Maddow producer Steve Benen also whacked away online at NBCNews.com: "Ron Johnson's anti-Biden memo lands with an embarrassing thud."
Back to the papers:
The Washington Post, on A-3: "GOP senators release report on Biden's son."
The Wall Street Journal, on A-4: "GOP Probe Says Hunter Biden's Work Raised Concern."
Politico's headline screamed "don't look" -- "GOP senators’ anti-Biden report repackages old claims." Probably not their headline when the Mueller Report came out.
So did Joe Biden face an avalanche of Hunter questions on the trail on Wednesday? Not one! Miranda Devine did an excellent job of rounding up the softballs for the New York Post:
At 10 a.m. at the Wilmington airport in Delaware, Biden answered three questions: how he was preparing for next week’s debate; whether US relations with China will be a “zero-sum game” if he is elected; and was he “still vetting potential Supreme Court nominees?”
On the tarmac in Charlotte, NC, he was asked, “What gives you the sense that you can win?”
Seriously. Talk about softballs.
There were more questions at about 1:30 p.m., after he delivered a teleprompter speech:
- What would he like to see for Historically Black Colleges and Universities?
- What is he going do about the minimum wage?
- What are his plans for “educational equity”?
- Will small businesses get COVID relief?
- How do you reimagine the Justice Department and its Civil Rights division after four years of Trump?
Finally, at Charlotte on the way home at about 6:30 p.m., Biden fielded more questions, about the Breonna Taylor ruling, Iran and what he thought about Supreme Court contender Amy Coney Barrett.
Nothing all day on Hunter Biden.
Devine underlined:
Hunter received a $3.5 million wire transfer in 2014 from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow, and a billionaire friend of Vladimir Putin. Now that’s real Russian collusion.
Given the gravity of the allegations, you would think that the media pack following Joe Biden would have asked him a question yesterday about the report.
