{"id":1399870,"date":"2022-03-25T07:45:14","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T11:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1399870"},"modified":"2022-03-25T07:45:25","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T11:45:25","slug":"4-big-takeaways-from-the-new-york-timess-attempt-to-control-the-hunter-biden-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/4-big-takeaways-from-the-new-york-timess-attempt-to-control-the-hunter-biden-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Big Takeaways From The New York Times\u2019s Attempt To Control The Hunter Biden Narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F4-big-takeaways-from-the-new-york-timess-attempt-to-control-the-hunter-biden-narrative%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1399870&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-4.22.29-PM.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Last Wednesday, The New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/16\/us\/politics\/hunter-biden-tax-bill-investigation.html\">reported<\/a> on the continuing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, and in doing so finally acknowledged the emails recovered from the laptop abandoned at a Delaware repair shop were authentic. Since then, much of the media\u2019s coverage has focused on the corrupt press\u2019 burying of the laptop scandal The New York Post broke shortly before the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>There is much more to be gleaned from the Times\u2019s article, though, including these four takeaways.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"1-if-the-laptop-is-legit-so-are-the-scandals-the-laptop-exposed\">1. If the Laptop Is Legit, So Are the Scandals the Laptop Exposed<\/h2>\n<p>The first key takeaway from The New York Times article concerns what it means for the scandals spawned by the October 2020 release of the emails and text messages contained on Hunter Biden\u2019s MacBook. The supposed standard-bearers of journalism ignored those scandals for the last year-and-a-half by framing the material \u201cRussian disinformation.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Now that the Times has acknowledged that the Biden-related emails and other documents recovered from the abandoned laptop are authentic, that means the scandals they exposed are also legitimate. As summarized at The Federalist <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/22\/8-joe-biden-scandals-inside-hunter-bidens-macbook-that-corporate-media-just-admitted-is-legit\/\">here<\/a>, there are eight Joe Biden scandals that deserve investigation.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"2-the-times-track-record-of-getting-ahead-of-the-story-suggests-more-developments-are-coming\">2. The Times\u2019s Record of  \u2018Getting Ahead of the Story\u2019 Suggests More Developments Are Coming<\/h2>\n<p>Beyond what Wednesday\u2019s article on Hunter Biden means more broadly related to the scandals exposed by the abandoned MacBook, the substance of the Times\u2019s coverage suggests a huge story about the president\u2019s son is about to break. Here, it is helpful to remember that the Times is the newspaper of record for stories needed to soften the landing for Democrats embroiled in scandal. In this case, the tells are all there that the Times is offering an assist to the Bidens by getting ahead of the story to come.<\/p>\n<p>Just as Press Secretary Jen Psaki smooths her cooper coif before dropping a doozy, the Times alerts observant readers to the real story when it identifies its source for information harmful to a Democrat as a \u201cperson familiar with the investigation.\u201d The Times used that technique ten times in its coverage of the Hunter Biden case.<\/p>\n<p>Another sure give-away is the Times\u2019s burying of the lede. That is an understatement of what the Old Grey Lady did when it titled its coverage of the investigation into Hunter Biden as \u201cHunter Biden Paid Tax Bill, but Broad Federal Investigation Continues.\u201d The article then opened with:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>In the year after he\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/12\/09\/us\/politics\/hunter-biden-tax-investigation.html\">disclosed a federal investigation<\/a>\u00a0into his \u2018tax affairs\u2019 in late 2020, President Biden\u2019s son, Hunter Biden, paid off a significant tax liability, even as a grand jury continued to gather evidence in a wide-ranging examination of his international business dealings, according to people familiar with the case.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>With a proper title, such as, \u201cProsecutors Find Evidence Hunter Profited by Selling Access to Vice-President Father,\u201d<em> <\/em>serious reporting would open by alerting the audience to damning evidence accumulated by federal prosecutors that suggests Hunter Biden criminally profited from his dad\u2019s position as Barack Obama\u2019s vice president.<\/p>\n<p>The Times\u2019s tactic of preemptively providing defenses to hypothetical criminal charges should also alert readers to the inevitability of an indictment against Hunter. For more on the preemptive defense of Hunter see point 4 below.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"3-prosecutors-are-investigating-some-serious-stuff\">3. Prosecutors are Investigating Some Serious Stuff<\/h2>\n<p>So, what might those inevitable charges be? Of course, it is impossible to know for sure unless and until an indictment drops, but it is inconceivable that the Times would air the Biden family\u2019s dirty laundry unless the reporters believed the entire household hamper was soon to be dumped in the middle of town.<\/p>\n<p>Revisiting the Times\u2019s article from last week, then, with the premise that the reporting seeks to \u201cget ahead of the story,\u201d suggests federal prosecutors may have some serious charges in mind for the president\u2019s son. Tax evasion seems the most likely charge Hunter will face, given that the Times reported that the president\u2019s son paid more than $1 million in tax liability while spinning any such criminal offense as Hunter\u2019s mere \u201cfailure to pay all his taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A second charge floated by the Times concerns violations of \u201cthe Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which requires disclosure to the Justice Department of lobbying or public relations assistance on behalf of foreign clients.\u201d Here, the Times\u2019 efforts to frame Hunter\u2019s potential violations of FARA as unintentional \u2014 and thus not criminal \u2014 suggests the Delaware U.S. attorney has a solid FARA case in the works.<\/p>\n<p>The Times\u2019s coverage, however, indicates federal prosecutors are looking at much more serious charges related to payments Hunter Biden received from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, as well his financial interests in Kazakhstan and China. Publicly available evidence already suggests Hunter Biden profited from these, and potentially other foreign interests, by selling access to his father when the elder Biden was vice president, which the Times casts as possibly allowing for a \u201cmoney laundering\u201d charge against Hunter.<\/p>\n<p>In last week\u2019s article, the Times reveals that prosecutors have accumulated significantly more evidence suggesting Hunter profited from these relationships, with prosecutors allegedly investigating \u201cpayments and gifts Mr. Biden or his associates had received from foreign interests, including a vehicle paid for using funds from a company associated with a Kazakh oligarch and a diamond from a Chinese energy tycoon.\u201d The Times also reported that prosecutors have \u201csought documents related to corporate entities through which Mr. Biden and his associates conducted business with interests around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Times further revealed that federal prosecutors have \u201cissued scores of subpoenas,\u201d related to \u201cHunter Biden\u2019s foreign work and for bank accounts linked to him and his associates.\u201d They even traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas, according to The Times, to interview Ms. Lunden Alexis Roberts, who sued Hunter for paternity payments, questioning her about Hunter\u2019s business dealings. As for the emails recovered from the abandoned MacBook, federal investigators have authenticated those as well.<\/p>\n<p>All of these details the Times reported in its article purportedly focused on the tax case against Hunter Biden. Other than the details confirmed by Roberts\u2019s lawyer, the information came principally from \u201cpeople familiar with the investigation,\u201d which means one of two things: someone with the prosecutor\u2019s office talked, or someone connected with Hunter Biden did.<\/p>\n<p>History provides a pretty good hint of the answer \u2014 and its reason: Hunter Biden\u2019s team likely gave the Times the heads-up to the case being crafted against the president\u2019s son to allow the liberal mainstay to massage a narrative before any potential charges became public. Given the details shared with the Times by people familiar with the investigation, then regurgitated by the Times for the public, it seems some pretty serious charges may be in store for Hunter.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"4-downplay-the-charges-build-the-narrative-and-beta-test-the-defenses\">4. Downplay the Charges, Build the Narrative, and Beta-Test the Defenses<\/h2>\n<p>As noted above, the Times\u2019 preemptive countering of several hypothetical criminal charges indicates the leftist paper\u2019s coverage of the Hunter Biden case seeks not to inform the public but to form a gentle narrative on which the president\u2019s son can land when the expected indictment drops. Here it is not merely the many defenses the Times lays out, but the entirety of the article that also downplays the potential charges and paints the most sympathetic scenario possible for Hunter Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Consider, for instance, the Times\u2019s framing of Hunter Biden and his apparent pay-to-play scheme. \u201cHunter Biden is a Yale-educated lawyer,\u201d the article notes early on, claiming that the \u201cbroader investigation\u201d stems \u201cfrom work he did around the world\u201d that \u201cintersected with his father\u2019s public service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It seems unlikely, though, that prosecutors are investigating \u201cwork\u201d Hunter Biden did around the world, although not as unlikely as the claim that President Biden\u2019s lifelong political career parlayed to his family\u2019s financial advantage is \u201cpublic service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Times also succeeded in presenting the Hunter Biden-Burisma scandal as one really about Trump, writing: \u201cHunter Biden\u2019s work for Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company, became a flashpoint in his father\u2019s race in 2020 against President Donald J. Trump and helped set off the events that led to Mr. Trump\u2019s first impeachment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, the Times will need another year or two before it can also acknowledge Donald Trump\u2019s concern about Biden family corruption in Ukrainian was legitimate and that Trump\u2019s impeachment was pure politics.<\/p>\n<p>Then there was the Times\u2019s reference to Hunter\u2019s \u201cserious drug addiction and other problems during the period\u201d the potentially illegal conduct took place. Add to those facts that Hunter was also \u201cdealing with the illness and death of his brother Beau,\u201d and the Times seems to suggest these sad circumstances mitigate the seriousness of any forthcoming charges.<\/p>\n<p>The remainder of the article presents various counters to the charges, such as that Hunter repaid the back taxes by taking out a loan \u2014 oh, the horror. The Times then pretends paying the government back lessens the import of a tax evasion case.<\/p>\n<p>On a potential FARA charge, the Times suggests Hunter attempted to comply with the law and that any violation was unintentional, meaning at best he should be held only civilly responsible. And on the most serious charge floated by the Times, money laundering, the paper presents that case as connected to the FARA charge, suggesting it would be inappropriate to charge the president\u2019s son with money laundering if he is innocent of violating FARA.<\/p>\n<p>Until the Delaware U.S. attorney announces charges, if any, against Hunter Biden, it is impossible to know the criminal jeopardy the president\u2019s son may face. But, given that when the Times reports on stories harmful to Democratic interests it proves prescient, odds are good that some serious charges are in the works.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is a senior contributor to The Federalist. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Wednesday, The New York Times reported on the continuing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, and in doing so finally acknowledged the emails recovered from the laptop abandoned at a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1399870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1399870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1399870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1399870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1399870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}