It’s a story that media outlets can no longer afford to play down

Photo: AP Images

One of America’s most celebrated tabloids is no longer content to just boast about scooping its competition. The New York Post has now begun taunting the Washington Post (WaPo) and the New York Times (NYT) for hushing up and burying the story of Hunter Biden’s self-incriminating laptop, which threatens the integrity of the Biden administration.

The media war picked up steam as a federal grand jury investigation intensified into allegations that President Biden’s son Hunter may have peddled his famous father’s name to land up to $6 million in consulting fees from Ukrainian and Chinese energy companies, while concealing his profits from the IRS.

It’s a story that media outlets can no longer afford to play down. The New York Post has been playing it up for more than a year, after verifying voluminous email correspondence between Hunter and businessmen in the two foreign lands. The emails were lifted from the hard drive of a laptop that Hunter left for repairs at a computer shop in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. The repairman is reportedly a big Donald Trump supporter who sneaked a peek at the private correspondence, then handed it over to Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

The WaPo and NYT just last week concurred that the offending computer belonged to Hunter and the emails were authentic. The same WaPo reporters who initially suppressed the story published a 3,000-word better-late-than-never exposé. The New York Post taunted them on Twitter, while the WaPo reporters merely responded with a link to their article.

Andrew Prokop, a senior political correspondent for Vox, defended the WaPo and NYT, claiming they “didn’t block anything,” although he admitted they reported the case “more slowly.” Prokop did cite legitimate ethical concerns regarding the publication of personal emails, especially if the material was stolen with a political agenda in mind.

Prokop also contends the emails don’t explicitly link Hunter’s business to his father, aside from two cryptic references Hunter made to the “big guy” or his “chairman,” which could be allusions to his father. All of the correspondence occurred well before Joe Biden became president, although much occurred when he was Obama’s vice president.

So why did the NYT and WaPo hop onto this now?

For starters, the grand jury investigation appears to have turned up new evidence against Hunter. Also, Howard Kurtz of Fox News suggests that the political winds have shifted. With Biden’s popularity plunging, Kurtz says the WaPo and NYT “are now doing the kind of journalism they’re capable of,” adding, “It sure took them a long time to get there.”

Other pundits are slow to catch on. A slew of bloggers has been trivializing the issue in recent days, conflating Hunter’s legal woes with mischief that other “first children” have gotten into, such as Jenna Bush’s underage drinking, Malia Obama’s teenage smoking, and — get this — Irvin Garfield, the son of James Garfield, who got caught riding his bicycle down the White House steps. Naughty boy!

It’s also possible the media is protective of Biden, who lost a one-year-old daughter in a 1972 car accident and his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015. These losses have become an essential part of the Biden legacy, both personal and political. While empathy with such heartache is certainly appropriate, Hunter Biden’s exploits belong in a completely different category, as he is the cause of his undoing.

It’s unknown when the grand jury probe will end or whether it will result in charges. But the longer the case drags on, the better chance that Republicans will raise Biden family corruption as an issue against Democrats in the November midterms.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 906)