Dan Froomkin: A pliant political press is wildly overplaying the Hunter Biden story [View all]

[Nevilledog]

https://presswatchers.org/2023/08/a-pliant-political-press-is-wildly-overplaying-the-hunter-biden-story/

Hunter Biden’s legal woes are newsworthy. No question.

But how newsworthy?

The president of the United States has a son who is deeply troubled and evidently corrupt as hell. After Hunter Biden’s plea deal with (Trump-appointed) prosecutor David Weiss blew up, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as a special counsel, cutting him loose from DOJ supervision. That’s all legitimate news fodder.

But no evidence has been unearthed to suggest that President Biden abetted or profited from Hunter’s frauds, beyond simply continuing to stand by him — as a good father is wont to do.

So unless that changes, it’s not really a legitimate campaign story. It’s a curiosity. Worse than that, it’s a distraction from the real stories.

Nevertheless, the highly accomplished Republican media-frenzy factory is going all out to turn it into a major story, and getting many takers in the mainstream media.

The obvious goal is confusing some voters into thinking that Biden is as much of a criminal as Donald Trump.

Which he is not.

*snip*