Mainstream media and Big Tech decided to put a 'protective wall' around Biden’s candidacy: Gerry Baker
Wall Steet Journal editor-at-large Gerry Baker reacts to the media coverage of Hunder Biden reports on 'Fox & Friends.'
Critics are baffled that the mainstream media has largely ignored Tucker Carlson’s interview with Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden who said the Biden family shrugged off concerns that Joe Biden’s alleged ties to his son's business deals could put a future presidential campaign at risk – raising questions about whether the “lapdog press” is still worthy of public trust.
Bobulinski, a retired lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, sat down with Carlson for a one-hour interview that aired on Tuesday night. Bobulinski said he raised concerns in 2017 to the former vice president's brother Jim Biden, about Joe Biden’s alleged ties to a possible joint venture with a Chinese energy firm.
While the mainstream media has scrutinized President Trump and his family members at every turn, there has been a near blackout of coverage of Bobulinski’s shocking claims.
Bobulinski’s comments to Carlson were completely ignored by CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and Washington Post as of 8 a.m. EST on Wednesday, exactly 12 hours after the start of the damning interview.
“It is pretty much a 100 percent blackout of the Bobulinski story in the traditional media. Of course, there are lots of stories that need to be covered in the busy 2020 news agenda, but the total omission of Bobulinski's accusations is curious, to say the least,” DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall told Fox News.
“Even if this story is not front and center on the news agenda, it does need to be approached somewhere along the way. Odds are that most mainstream media outlets are devoting very few reporting resources, if any, to the Bobulinski story,” McCall added. “It would seem those outlets could at least be investigating the accusations to try to prove them invalid.”
HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS ASSOCIATE'S TEXT MESSAGES INDICATE MEETING WITH JOE BIDEN
McCall noted that the typical default has been to “assume that the Hunter Biden story, and what Joe's role might or might not have been, is totally off limits and not newsworthy,” which isn’t how the press should operate.
“What little coverage has surfaced has basically just been running without challenge the boilerplate denials and indignation from the Biden camp. The manner in which this story has been covered can only be described as the ‘lapdog press,’ as contrasted with the ‘watchdog press,’” McCall said.
Political satirist Tim Young told Fox News said it's astounding the media has ignored the story.
“When you realize that major media organizations such as CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post and the NY Times ran completely unsubstantiated stories like the pee tape from the dossier, Julie Swetnick and Michael Avenatti's claims against now Justice Kavanaugh, and numerous anonymous senior administration officials statements that 'would definitely prove the Trump campaign colluded with Russia' yet haven’t touched direct testimony with direct evidence and easily provable points from Tony Bobulinski after his Tucker Carlson interview, it goes beyond hypocrisy," he said, "it's election interference to try to install a potentially seriously corrupt candidate in Joe Biden.”
Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson told Fox News that it’s clear the liberal media “thinks this could hurt their preferred candidate” so the story is simply being avoided.
TONY BOBULINSKI TELLS TUCKER: JOE BIDEN DENIALS OF INVOLVEMENT IN SON'S BUSINESS 'A BLATANT LIE'
"The easiest way to determine whether ignoring or minimizing the Bobulinski interview and documents reflects media bias is to imagine if something similar happened to Donald Trump. If Bobulinski were blowing the whistle on Trump influence peddling, all the networks and newspapers would be carrying the story nonstop through election day,” Jacobson said.
“Over the course of the full hour, Bobulinski came across as credible and, most importantly, brought e-mails, texts, and a recording of Biden family confidante Bob Walker pleading with him not to go public,” NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck wrote in a piece headlined, “Here Are Ten Moments from the Bobulinski Interview the Liberal Media Will Ignore.”
“Carlson led-in to the interview by noting Bobulinski’s enormous wealth so he hasn’t done this for any financial windfall. Rather, he’s fighting back ‘to clear his family's name of’ being called ‘an agent of Russian disinformation’ by Biden, his circle, and the news media,” Houck wrote before noting the ten moments that he feels the liberal media should probably care about, detailing the significance of each shocking moment.
- 1. Biden Associate Pleads With Bobulinski; You’ll ‘Bury All of Us’
- 2. Bobulinski: Joe’s Brother Credits ‘Plausible Deniability’
- 3. ‘I Think Joe Biden and His Family Are Compromised’ by the Chinese
- 4. This Was Never Just About Hunter Biden
- 5. ‘They Carved Out a Piece of His Schedule for You’
- 6. Bobulinski’s First Meeting with Joe Biden
- 7. Joe Tells Bobulinski to ‘Keep an Eye on’ His Brother and Son
- 8. ‘10 Percent for the Big Guy, Held by H’
- 9. ‘There's Two Chairman in This Story’
- 10. ‘The Only Qualification They Had Was the Biden Name'
“The media's dedication to dragging Biden across the finish line is only growing more intense as Election Day nears. It shouldn't be surprising they're going to pretend that anything that reflects badly on Biden isn't newsworthy,” Media Research Center executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News.
Jacobson feels that despite the media’s attempt to mute the story, it’ll eventually be covered in some capacity.
“They cannot keep a total lid on the story considering it is being covered on the top-rated cable news show and is being picked up by conservative media and social media,” Jacobson said. “Regardless of the election outcome, the mainstream liberal media has shown itself unworthy of public trust."
Others took to Twitter with thoughts on the media blackout of news that could hurt the Democratic nominee:
“Joe Biden repeatedly said he "never" discussed Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings with him. Tony Bobolinski provides a great deal of evidence that this was not true. That's a major story, even if the foreign business dealings didn't involve the country's primary adversary,” Mollie Hemingway wrote.
SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING HUNTER BIDEN EMAILS
Richard Grenell responded, “Reporters think because they don’t cover this story that people don’t see it. But they certainly do. They also see the bias in ignoring it to help Joe Biden.”
Grenell is correct that a significant amount of voters presumably saw the interview, as “Tucker Carlson Tonight” delivered the highest-rated primetime show average in the history of cable news this month.
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Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.