Anyone who's followed the dissolute life and times of Hunter Biden knows that no one wanted the Biden presidency to end less than Hunter. His father's power was a cash cow, giving him millions he wasted on crack cocaine and hookers. So when he tried to mount a moral high horse in a three-hour podcast interview, that's news.
The Associated Press hinted at it. Hunter, "seen by some as the problem child of the Democratic Party for legal and drug-related woes that brought negative attention to his father, is lashing out" at other Democrats. The hint is: Who is this guy to lecture someone else about damaging his father's political career?
Hunter and the other Bidens fervently wanted a second term for Joe Biden, regardless of how capable he was. They all knew how incapable he had become, and pushed him toward another four years anyway. How was Hunter going to sell mediocre watercolor paintings after the White House years were over?
As we know, the urge to deny there is any scandal or problem with the Bidens is strong among the Democrat networks. There was nothing on these rantings on the evening news shows for ABC, CBS, PBS or NPR. They will crow about how Donald Trump just can't seem to get people to stop paying attention to whatever scandal they're pushing about him. That's "news." Biden rants are buried.
It's especially funny when PBS CEO Paula Kerger is telling her fellow liberals they can't bow to Trump and water down their "unflinching news coverage." They flinch constantly in favor of helping the Democrats bury news they don't want anyone to see.
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NBC offered about 30 seconds of Hunter claiming his father's debate performance could be blamed on taking the powerful sleep drug Ambien, which makes you wonder how he would function as president on what they call a "sedative-hypnotic."
By contrast, CNN host Jake Tapper spent about eight minutes discussing this topic on his show "The Lead." He showed a clip of Hunter saying to opponents of illegal immigration: "F--- you. How do you think your hotel room gets cleaned? How do you think you got food on your (bleeping) table? Who do you think washes your dishes?" Tapper noted that was the hot clip among conservatives on social media.
Alex Thompson, who coauthored the book "Original Sin" with Tapper, added that "this is exactly why Democrats ... are not exactly thrilled with Hunter Biden popping his head up and do not believe that Hunter Biden is the most effective communicator for the Democratic Party right now." That's why the video was energetically skipped.
Channeling the worldview of the anti-Trump media, Karen Finney told Tapper, "I just say, who cares? I actually just don't care."
Thompson also said, "Hunter is clearly establishing himself as the carrier of the family's grievances, and is also, you know, completely obliterating the fiction from last summer that Joe Biden was doing sort of the honorable thing." He said Joe Biden was driven out of this race by the elites, and the Bidens still resent it.
On Tuesday morning, NBC offered almost three minutes on "Today." On ABC's "Good Morning America," Jonathan Karl ran a clip without laughter when Hunter celebrated Team Biden as "the most successful administration of my lifetime" (55 years). But Karl added that Hunter told ABC he didn't actually know if his father was on Ambien last year.
The dominant story of the last few days is the assertion that Trump sent a birthday card to eventual sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. That's somehow the momentous scandal of our time. Never mind the Bidens.
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.
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