The MRC's Winter of Hunter Biden Derangement

The Media Research Center continued to be mad that its Hunter Biden obsession hadn't escaped its right-wing bubble -- and it repeatedly whined that the the media was covering actual Donald Trump scandals instead.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 6/30/2023

NBC’s Meet the Press was off to a bad start on their first program of the new year when moderator Chuck Todd went the entire hour on Sunday without mentioning Twitter’s suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop during the 2020 presidential election, and in so doing rigged the election in favor of Joe Biden, as the Media Research Center has proven. Despite this omission during their hour-long program dedicated to the role of social media in our government and society, guest Jeh Johnson whined about the Russians using social media to “invade our American conversation.”

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“But this is an issue that we've really yet to get our arms around because it does implicate free speech,” he added.

Yet Johnson apparently has no problem with Twitter suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 presidential election. That had a much larger impact than anything Russian bots did in 2016.

In fact, the MRC has "proven" nothing beyond its financial ability to buy a couple biased polls, including one from Donald Trump's own election pollster, upon which to build this conspiracy theory.

Two days later, Curtis Houck whined that the Hunter conspiracy wasn't getting traction outside the right-wing media bubble:

Is Chris Licht interested in changing CNN or is he asleep at the wheel? Such was the case on Tuesday, during the coverage of the vote for speaker of the 118th Congress when it felt as though old puppetmaster Jeff Zucker were still in the control room, as so-called journalists smeared Republicans and wondered if voters actually want Congress to do anything about Hunter Biden’s life of corruption.

After State of the Union co-host Dana Bash lamented how Congress has been held hostage for “12, 15 years” by a “small band of extremes” in the GOP, her fellow co-host and The Lead host Jake Tapper tossed to outgoing Congressman Rodney Davis (R-IL) by similarly bemoaning the “ultra-right-wing, MAGA group...is, by the way, in some analyses, the reason why there wasn't a red wave.”

Davis made a more general point about how “candidate quality matters” and has been an issue for multiple cycles, but then pivoted to insisting that, by holding up a Kevin McCarthy speakership, they’d put at risk their promises to voters “to hold Hunter Biden and Joe Biden accountable.”

Tapper snidely dismissed this: “You think that voters sent the Republican majority to the House of Representatives to hold Hunter Biden accountable?”

Earth to Jake, would that be the case to spend years talking about the Oath Keepers or Trump’s tax returns or Stormy Daniels?

Houck made no attempt to actually prove that the Hunter Biden story is important outside his partisan bubble.

Curtis Houck was mad that Hunter Biden's team is fighting back in a Feb. 2 post:

On Thursday morning, NBC’s Today rediscovered Hunter Biden’s “much talked about laptop” (which in and of itself is comical for a liberal outlet to assert) in order to trumpet Hunter’s “aggressive new legal strategy” to force his father’s Justice Department and allies in Delaware law enforcement to open criminal investigations of those that shared and promoted its contents, which resulted in “a series of salacious and frankly damaging media stories”.

He went on to cite a right-wing website to claim that computer guy John Paul Mac Isaac had every right to rummage around Hunter's laptop because it was abandoned property, "no different than someone dropping off their suits and never picking them up from the dry cleaners."

Tober returned on Feb. 5 to repeat the complaint the Hunter story remained stuck in the right-wing bubble:

On Sunday's edition of Fox News Channel's MediaBuzz, frequent guest and NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson said the quiet part out loud when she admitted that the lack of media coverage of Joe Biden's crackhead son Hunter is not expected to change and as a result, the political calculus on whether the growing list of crimes Hunter is accused of is enough to hurt President Joe Biden isn't expected to change either.

This discussion arose because of the news this week about Hunter's new lawyer who has sought to help the President's delinquent son go on the offensive against the few media outlets who dare to cover his crimes.

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It's unclear whether this is a prediction on Liasson's or a promise on her behalf. You can bet that if she has anything to say about it, she will continue to ignore the Hunter Biden laptop scandal at taxpayer-funded liberal National Public Radio (NPR).

Tober claimed that Liasson was acting "petulant" when she said this, but he offered no proof of this claim.

The whining and lecturing continued throughout January and February, part of which involved complaints that coverage of the House Republicans' hearing on the "Twitter files" didn't focus solely on Hunter (and instead pointed out how Donald Trump tried to get Twitter to censor Chrissy Teigen calling him a "pussy ass bitch"):

• James Comer SCHOOLS Chuck Todd on Importance of Hunter Investigation
• MSNBC: GOP Turning Biden Scandal Into 'Next Benghazi,' Hunter Is 'Just His Son'
• Column: Tracking Hunter Biden's Aid to Other Dissolute Bidens
• Latino Media Suppress Hunter Biden’s Push to Prosecute Laptop Whistleblowers
• NEW NewsBusters Podcast: Networks Avoid New Hunter Biden Scandal Scoops
• CNN Dismisses Twitter-Hunter Laptop Probe: 'No Evidence' Of FBI Role
• Morning Joe Trashes GOP Over Twitter Bias Hearing: Nobody Cares About Hunter's Laptop!
• ABC, NBC Still Silent on Hunter Biden Laptop Hearing as CBS Breaks the Ice
• NPR Isn't 'Untangling Disinformation' on Hunter Biden Scandals, It's Spreading It
• Meyers Claims Nobody 'Gives A ****' About Twitter-Hunter Hearing
• Left Deflects on Import of Twitter Files-Hunter Biden Hearing (CensorTrack with Paiten)
• Networks Ignore Hunter Biden Refusing Congressional Documents Request
• He’s Alive! Stelter Resurfaces to Defend the Liberal Media Over Hunter Biden’s Laptop

And it wouldn't be the MRC if it wasn't trying to run up the numbers on purported Hunter scandals, so we have a Feb. 7 post by Geoffrey Dickens titled "10 Brand NEW Hunter Biden Breaking Stories the Nets Are Burying," By our count -- based on the articles claiming "new" scandals -- the MRC wants you to believe there are at least 45 separate and distinct Hunter Biden "scandals," which seems to defy logic.

The MRC's Hunter Biden Derangement Syndrome continued into March and April:

• Sununu Confronts Todd on Dishonest Media Ignoring Hunter Biden Laptop
• Nets Skip GOP Acquiring Bank Records of Hunter Biden's Associates
• NewsBusters Podcast: Big Tech Mangling of COVID, Climate, and Hunter Biden
• Nets Ignore Biden's Daughter-In-Law Receiving Chinese Wire Transfer
• CNN Claims GOP Has No 'Evidence Of Wrongdoing' On Joe And Hunter Biden
• Nets Skip News Hunter's Associates Visited Obama/Biden White House Over 80 Times
• CBS Reports on Hunter Biden Whistleblower Bombshell, ABC & NBC Ignore
• ABC, NBC Surprisingly Surface After CBS Covered Alleged Meddling in Hunter Biden Case
• ABC, NBC Hide BRUTAL News on So-Called ‘Disinformation’ Letter About Hunter’s Laptop
• NewsBusters Podcast: Hunter Biden Scoops, Michelle Obama's 'Epic' Goop
• Ignoring Hunter Revelations, PBS Hypes Biden 2024: No 'Big Scandals'
• Journos on PBS: GOP Hasn't 'Landed a Punch' on Biden Scandals (Hunter Wasn't Mentioned)

The MRC also continued to lash out at anyone who pointed out the holes in Hunter-haters' logic. Tim Graham whined in a Feb. 2 post:

The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler runs their shop called “The Fact Checker.” But often, they’re just expressing hostilities – and tossing the Pinocchios – at Republican opinions they don't like. They should just be honest and call themselves “The Opinion Checker.”

Kessler’s latest attack is a “Three Pinocchios” analysis of Senators Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz for their opinion that a 2014 Hunter Biden email sounds sophisticated enough to suggest he was getting a Ukraine briefing from his vice-president dad or affiliated staffers. Kessler implies that’s basically lying Pinocchio-land:

For nine years [2002-2010], The Fact Checker was diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post. I’ve seen my share of backgrounders, State Department cables and even the odd classified document. Far from being especially sophisticated, Hunter Biden’s email appears to be largely the product of diligent reading of recent newspaper and magazine articles.

So it’s opinion vs. opinion. Not fact versus falsehood.

Then Kessler’s guesswork gets a long workout: “Let’s take a tour through the first 11 of 22 enumerated points in the email and see if the main facts in them could be found in news reports of the time.” That’s NOT a fact check.

Actually, it's educated opinion vs. partisan opinion, and Graham is not going to admit that Johnson and Cruz are too partisan for their opinion to be taken at face value. Instead, he complained further that Kessler pointed out that neither Cruz nor Johnson offered factual evidence to support that partisan opinion.

Curtis Houck used a March 17 post to sputter rage that Hunter is fighting back:

Hunter Biden and his family’s team of high-powered attorneys amended their lawsuit Friday, against the former Delaware computer repair shop owner at the center of Hunter’s laptop scandal that exacerbated and illustrated for the world the First Son’s life of ruin.

Not surprisingly, the liberal media — ranging from ABCNews.com to Delaware’s top newspaper to The Washington Post — were so favorable in covering this filing against John Mac Isaac that they rhetorically camped themselves inside Hunter’s colon.

And seeing as how we’ve repeatedly shown that the major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC have displayed barely any interest in the story on their flagship AM and PM shows, this provides a glimpse into how they’d report on it if they were forced to.

ABCNews.com’s Lucien Bruggeman was shameless in her acceptance of Team Hunter’s framing:

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Bruggeman added that the new filing was “the latest turn in an increasingly offensive legal tack” for Hunter as he had “until recently...largely avoided public confrontations about his business dealings.”

Gee, wonder how he was able to duck “public confrontations”?!

Houck and Graham, of course, are on Team Hunter-Hater.

Kevin Tober spent an April 23 post getting overly excited (headline: "IT'S HAPPENING!") that one non-right-wing show referenced "the bombshell revelation from an IRS whistleblower that the Biden administration is allegedly giving Hunter Biden preferential treatment and has tried to stonewall the investigation into his alleged tax and business related crimes." Still, he grumbled that "ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet the Press & CNN’s State of the Union never mentioned this week’s revelations about the Hunter Biden tax fraud investigation."

Cover Hunter, not Trump!

The MRC's desperation to defend Donald Trump from being held accountable for his actions led to no fewer than four bouts of Hunter Biden Derangement Syndrome, demanding that the media cover him and not Trump. Kevin Tober complained in a March 19 post:

Continuing the week-long trend of the leftist media ignoring each and every new revelation in the rapidly growing scandal surrounding the Biden family’s corrupt overseas business dealings, the March 19 Sunday shows all blatantly ignored this latest Biden scandal in favor of a familiar media spectacle: Donald Trump.

The four liberal Sunday talk shows, which consist of ABC’s This Week, CBS's Face the Nation, NBC’s Meet the Press, and CNN’s State of the Union spent a combined 46 minutes and 46 seconds obsessing and sometimes gleefully reporting on the news that former President Donald Trump could be indicted over his involvement with former porn star Stormy Daniels.

The time breakdown that each show spent on the Trump news is as follows: This Week (13 minutes 14 seconds), Face the Nation (7 minutes), Meet the Press (6 minutes 10 seconds), and State of the Union (22 minutes 22 seconds).

In contrast, these Sunday shows spent no time at all on the news that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) acquired the bank records of Hunter Biden’s business associates.

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Unfortunately, today’s media with the exception of Fox News and a few other outlets, serve no other purpose than being the Democrat Party’s [sic] PR agents.

Translation: Tober is very happy and grateful that Fox News is serving as a PR agent for the Republican Party.

Tober returned to complain a week later that non-right-wing Sunday shows still were not promoting Republican propaganda:

For the second week in a row (March 26), the four liberal Sunday roundtable shows ignored the rapidly growing scandal surrounding the Biden family’s corrupt overseas business dealings, even as new details continued to unravel. Instead, of reporting on the hard evidence in the federal Hunter Biden probe (and other alleged crimes and corruption surrounding the Biden family), they spent considerable airtime speculating and debating about a possible indictment of former President Trump by Alvin Bragg, the Soros-backed district attorney in New York City.

The four liberal Sunday talk shows, which consist of ABC’s This Week, CBS's Face the Nation, NBC’s Meet the Press, and CNN’s State of the Union, spent over an hour (63 minutes and 53 seconds) of combined time on the possible Trump indictment story.

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The fact that the Sunday shows continued to ignore the Biden story while harping on a week-old Trump story with no new substantive information shows their efforts to deflect for the Biden administration.

Tober didn't explain why he didn't think the possibility of a former president facing a criminal indictment wasn't newsworthy -- or why Republican speculation about a non-politician's possible indictment is.

After news of Trump's indictment broke, Geoffrey Dickens took the indignation stick, continuing to be mad that it was considered news and Republican ranting over Hunter Biden wasn't in a March 31 post:

Shhh! Nothing to see here! The Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks continue to bury the Hunter Biden probe and the growing scandals surrounding the Biden family’s corruption, including the House Oversight Committee’s revelations that Hunter, the President’s brother Jim and Hallie Biden (widow of son Beau) received payments from a Chinese energy firm — something President Joe Biden firmly denied.

However, their voracious appetite for covering the various investigations (Stormy Daniels, Mar-a-Lago documents, January 6th) surrounding former President Donald Trump remains unsatiated.

Beginning with the House Oversight Committee’s breaking of the Hallie Biden news through the evening of Trump’s indictment, MRC analysts tracked the glaring double standard.

Over 14 days (March 16-March 30) ABC, NBC, CBS filled their evening, morning and Sunday roundtable shows with over 272 minutes (4 hours, 32 minutes, 56 seconds) of Trump investigation coverage compared to ZERO seconds spent on Biden family corruption stories. On average, network audiences saw almost 20 minutes per day of Trump investigation stories.

Dickens updated his numbers for an April 6 post:

The Big Three (ABC, NBC, CBS) networks are trying to play magician again, hoping their audiences stay so focused on former President Donald Trump that they don’t notice how they’ve used a sleight of hand trick to completely hide the Biden family corruption stories.

Despite the House Oversight Committee digging up new dirt on President Joe Biden and his clan, the broadcast networks continue to censor revelations that Hunter, the President’s brother Jim and Hallie Biden (widow of son Beau) received payments from a Chinese energy firm. Most recently they whistled past more incriminating news on Biden’s improper handling of classified documents.

However, they remain obsessed with covering the various investigations (Stormy Daniels, Mar-a-Lago documents, January 6th) surrounding former President Donald Trump.

Beginning with the House Oversight Committee’s breaking of the Biden family receiving payments from payments through the day after Trump’s arrest in New York, MRC analysts tracked the glaring double standard.

Dickens concluded by huffing: "It’s striking how the networks have completely disappeared any mention of the most recent Biden family scandals while at the same time obsessively reporting on the Trump investigations. The contrast is truly stunning." He didn't mention that no actual evidence of Biden wrongdoing has been released -- even Fox News has called out oversight committee head James Comer for not producing anything meaningful to back up his Biden-bashing claims -- and he again failed to explain why Trump's indictment was not newsworthy.