Through his lawyer, Hunter Biden has issued a statement saying he will resign from a private equity fund that’s backed by Chinese state-owned entities at the end of October.
He is currently on the board of BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company, an organization created in 2013 with the intention of investing Chinese capital outside the country.
The move by the son of Joe Biden, former Vice President of the United States and current Democrat presidential hopeful, was no doubt triggered by the relentless attacks he faced from the MSM over his shady foreign business dealings.
I apologize for having just spilled a full cup of sarcasm on your lap. Anyone reading this column already knows that Hunter Biden has been given an almost completely free pass by the MSM with regard to his involvement not just in Chinese business while his father was Vice President, but also in Ukraine.
I have previously written about Hunter’s business dealing and have addressed them extensively on my podcast. In short, While Joe was our nation’s second-in-command, Hunter accompanied him on Air Force Two on state-sanctioned trips to China where, shortly thereafter, his team was awarded the investment banking deal mentioned above. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, he was named to the Board of Directors for Burisma Holdings and paid $50,000 per month, despite having no industry knowledge. When Burisma was being investigated by the Ukraine government, Papa Joe threatened to cut off U.S. aid unless the prosecutor was fired.
Nearly every legacy news outlet places the obligatory “unsubstantiated” in front of a description of events. There’s nothing unsubstantiated about any of it. The above are facts from which reasonable people would draw an inference of corruption and influence peddling. My observation is that few to none of those reasonable people can be found in the MSM.
Professor Jonathan Turley, a man who prides himself in his consistent analysis and application of law regardless of circumstance, has written a must-read piece in TheHIll.com regarding the media’s handling of the Hunter Biden affair, calling him “He who must not be named.” Turley points to examples of interviewers at CNN, NBC, and MSNBC all quickly shutting down guests who dare to mention Hunter and Joe’s activities in the context of discussing the current fake impeachment story involving President Trump. Turley is far from a Trump surrogate, and I urge you to read his commentary. The smattering of headlines after Hunter finally decided to emerge out of hiding on ABC’s Good Morning America only underscores this point.
Now, compare the treatment that Hunter is receiving to the way the mainstream media has covered the offspring of the current President. Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and even young Barron have found themselves to be targets of MSM scrutiny and attacks.
Full disclosure, I am a close friend of Don Jr.’s, a friendship to which many on social media try to attach some sort of nefarious source or motive (as if Don and I were, by traveling and hunting together, up to some sort of Hunter Biden antics). With the above duly noted, Don Jr. gave a strong interview last Friday on Brian Kilmeade’s radio program. He pointed out the double standard at work in how the media is trying to suppress the Hunter Biden story vs. how he has been treated by the same group of “objective journalists.”
Look at what they tried to do to me for three years. I mean, these clowns tried to put me in jail for three years because I took an unsolicited phone call… You know, the double standard is pretty sick, Brian. I’ve talked about it for a long time. We can play one way or we can play another way, but we’ve got to be playing the same game… The reality is this: if Donald Trump Jr. flew on Air Force One with my father, the president, to China and came back with $1.5 dollars—not $1.5 billion, just $1.5 dollars—we’d solve the fake news media problem because their heads would explode… If Donald Trump Jr. had a no-show gig on a corrupt Ukrainian oil company while my father was in charge of the issues over there… minor details. I’ve never been in energy or oil. Minor details. I don’t speak Ukrainian.
Regardless of how you feel about Don Jr., or any of the Trumps, his point is well made. There is little question that if he, or any of his siblings, were engaged in Hunter Biden-type affairs, not only would the MSM scrutinize the dealings with breathless wall-to-wall special reporting from CNN to 60 Minutes. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi would likely throw every clause of the Constitution in a bonfire if it meant she could impeach the president’s children along with him.
There is a literary archetype for the character that is Hunter Biden. He is the ne’er-do-well offspring of the privileged and powerful man who needs to be helped and coddled but nevertheless ends up becoming an embarrassment for the father. Once the problem becomes bad enough, the powerful pater familias has to step in to help save his ne’er-do-well son. That is exactly what has happened here with the Biden campaign telling news organizations to lay off poor Hunter.
This is more than a rant about unfairness in the media. We are all well aware of that. What should be of primary concern is just how much we tolerate this kind of media bias and disinformation. We are not doing enough to fight back.
While liberals are openly flaunting the inherent hypocrisy of their positions, driving around the country in their gas-guzzling SUVs adorned with “#Resist” bumper stickers, conservatives just continue enabling their behavior allowing the MSM to dictate the terms of the national discourse. We are not doing enough to resist a biased media and the threat it poses to our continued freedom. Maybe we need a national “Change the Channel” day. Conservatives all across the country in airports, restaurants, health clubs, and hotel lobbies could walk up to the host or attendant and say “please change the channel” when they are televising biased news programming in their public areas.
In all the fake news media malice of the Trump-era, we have forgotten that a free press belongs to the us, the American citizens—not to the journalists. They work for us. Their job? To tell the truth, protect American liberty, and not play favorites.
Charlie Kirk is the founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, the nation’s largest and fastest growing conservative youth organization with a presence on over 1,400 college and high school campuses; he is also host of “The Charlie Kirk Show.”