Topic: Media Research Center
If there's one sure way to make the Media Research Center mad enough to scribble out an outraged post, it's pointing out that there's no real evidence to prove that President Biden has engaged in corruption. For instance:
- House Conservatives WRECK Reporter Claiming No ‘Actual Evidence’ to Biden Corruption
- Nets Scream ‘No Evidence’ in Gleeful Compliance to WH Memo on Biden Impeachment
- NewsBusters Podcast: Ridiculous 'No Evidence' Biden Impeachment Spin
- Dale Repeatedly Falsely Claims 'No Public Evidence' Biden Is Corrupt
- Speaker Kevin McCarthy Schools AP Reporter on Her 'Without Evidence' Garbage
- ABC's Karl Falsely Claims No Biden Bribery Evidence, Mace Schools Him
- PBS Plays Judge, Jury for Biden: ‘We Have Established…No Evidence’ of Wrongdoing
- NBC Blasts Biden Impeachment as Waste, ‘No Hard Evidence’ of Biden Wrongdoing
- MSNBC Repeats 'No Evidence' Lie, Claims Trump Will Seize 3rd Term
One attempt to go past the partisan outrage and actually trying to back up the MRC's claim was a Sept. 7 post by Bill D'Agostino that reads more like a James Comer press release than "media research":
For months, the left-wing media have been lying outright to their audiences about the status of President Biden’s corruption scandal. Despite heaps of documents, damning statements from multiple witnesses, and sworn testimony from whistleblowers, journalists are still claiming with alarming frequency that there is “no evidence” Biden was involved in an influence-peddling scheme as Vice President.
Consider this (far from exhaustive) list of the evidence we’ve seen just from this past year:
- More than 20 LLCs, which were established by Biden family members and their associates, have transferred an excess of $20,000,000 between foreign nationals and at least nine of Biden’s relatives.
- These transfers generated at least 170 suspicious activity reports from banks, which were submitted to the IRS. The figures are also backed up by thousands of pages of bank records.
- A credible FBI source, who has worked with the agency for more than 10 years, has alleged that there exist at least 17 recordings of Joe and Hunter Biden discussing business with Burisma executives while Biden was Vice President.
- Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer testified under oath that then-Vice President Biden spoke with Hunter’s business partners at least 20 times on speakerphone between 2008 and 2016.
- The National Archives has identified 5,400 emails from Biden’s Vice Presidency, which show him using pseudonyms to communicate government information to his son Hunter’s investment firm.
What D'Agostino doesn't do, however, is explain how any of these claims actually prove any corruption on Biden's part. (and he's certainly not going to tell you that Devon Archer is a criminal who actually contradicted Comer's narrative). And D'Agostino -- again, following Comer's narrative -- is trying to make things look worse than they actually are. For instance, the revelation of email accounts under different names is no big deal and not uncommon among government officials. Frank Vyan Walton at Daily Kos debunked the rest of this. Nrvertheless ,D'Agostino whined:
All of this looks terrible for the President. Has any of it risen to the level of 100% undeniable, ironclad proof of criminality? Not yet, but the journalists aren’t claiming there’s no proof. They’re denying, in outrageous fashion, the existence of any evidence at all. And that’s a massive lie.
This is an astounding dereliction of duty by the corporate media. But sadly, it’s not really a surprise to anyone.
But if none of this evidence adds up to any proof that the Bidens actually did anything illegal or unethical, it's not really evidence -- and, again, D'Agostino made no effort to prove that it did.
Nevertheless, the NewsBusters podcast the following day insisted that D'Agostino perpetrated "a thorough beatdown of the willfully blind and partisan press." Yeah, not so much.
