Hunter Biden scandals largely ignored in network news
Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell speaks about legacy networks largely blacking out negative Hunter Biden coverage in recent months.
ABC, NBC and CBS have completely skipped recent unflattering breaking news related to first son Hunter Biden, according to a new study from the Media Research Center.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee is scheduled to kick off a hearing to investigate Big Tech censorship of the Biden family's business "schemes," but recent history indicates that anything damning related to Hunter Biden will be largely ignored by morning and evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC.
MRC founder and president Brent Bozell believes ABC, CBS and NBC are "whitewashing" negative information about the first son and at least nine recent stories have been completely ignored by the broadcast networks.
"They do not want the public to know about the Biden family. I find it beyond horrifying and beyond disgusting that NBC, ABC, CBS have the word news next to their names because there's nothing newsworthy about the product that they're delivering," Bozell told Fox News Digital.
ABC, NBC and CBS have completely skipped recent unflattering breaking news related to President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, according to a new study from the Media Research Center. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
A Feb. 1 New York Post report that Hunter Biden’s legal team appeared to admit his infamous, scandal-plagued laptop belonged to him, only to later backtrack. NBC News covered the story when Kristen Welker reported on Hunter’s "aggressive new legal strategy," but ABC and CBS looked the other way and completely ignored it on air, according to the study.
While NBC found time to cover the story, Bozell doesn’t feel a single "Today" show segment is any indication media outlets plan to spotlight scandals surrounding the president’s son anytime soon.
"At the end of the day, there’s not much difference… this scandal, it might be ABC that gave it lip service. That scandal, might be CBS that did a story. The other scandal, NBC disappeared -- at the end of the days, it the same thing," Bozell continued. "When you've got these stories that are goose egg, goose egg, goose egg, goose egg, the fact that one network did one story on this scandal doesn't change anything."
The blackout on negative Hunter Biden news is nothing new, and the New York Post’s initial 2020 laptop story was widely dismissed by print and television outlets, especially The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC and CNN. In an unprecedented display of coordination, Twitter and Facebook blocked or limited sharing of the Post's bombshell report. The trend is ongoing three years later, and a variety of unflattering news related to Hunter Biden has been dismissed in recent weeks.
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"That's a deliberate decision not to report news," Bozell said. "What we're seeing now is a continuation of what we saw during the campaign cycle where, and the post-election survey showed it, that the media did not report the Hunter Biden story to its audience. And as a result, Democrats who watched NBC, CBS, ABC, who went to the polls didn't know about the Biden story."
In November 2020, the Media Research Center reported that 36% of Biden voters were unaware of the "evidence linking Joe Biden to corrupt financial dealings with China through his son Hunter." Roughly thirteen percent of those voters would have selected a different candidate if they were privy to the information found on the scandalous laptop, the study indicated.
"This is a this is the left-wing media, as a whole, not wanting to rock the boat where the Biden administration is concerned while they did everything in their power to capsize the boat when Donald Trump was president," Bozell said.
On Feb. 3, the Washington Examiner reported that some Republicans are concerned that Hunter Biden could have seen classified information and used it to advance overseas business interests. ABC, CBS and NBC all gave this report a pass, failing to mention it whatsoever, according to the study.
In November 2020, the Media Research Center reported that 36% of Biden voters were unaware of the "evidence linking Joe Biden to corrupt financial dealings with China through his son Hunter." (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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Last month, the New York Post reported that Hunter Biden "apparently turned his father’s Wilmington, Del. mansion into a high-powered and possibly compromised home office, wheeling and dealing with some of the same nations whose names have turned up in classified documents recently discovered at the home," citing experts and leaked cell phone texts.
ABC, CBS and NBC skipped this story, too, according to the study.
The trio of networks also declined to cover a Jan. 20 report that President Biden was named in an email from his son’s infamous laptop discussing a 25 million-ton gas deal with China and completely ignored a Jan. 31 report that the first son once refused to pay a female assistant unless she shared nude photos. The MRC found that evening and morning newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC didn’t find time for either potential scandal.
A Jan. 18 New York Post report that Hunter Biden had access to the Corvette parked next to the classified documents famously found in the president’s "locked garage" also went uncovered by ABC, NBC and CBS.
Two days prior the same networks passed when the Post reported a former top intelligence official who signed the 2020 public letter dismissing the scandalous laptop actually knew a "significant portion" was likely legitimate but helped discredit it anyway. ABC, CBS and NBC all declined to cover the news, according to the study.
The blackout on negative Hunter Biden news is nothing new, and the New York Post’s initial 2020 laptop story was widely dismissed by print and television outlets. (CBS)
Reports from December 2022 about Hunter Biden’s art dealer ignoring requests from the House Oversight Committee and the mother of one of his children seeking to change the child’s last name to Biden "so the child can benefit from the family’s presidential lineage" were also completely ignored, according to the MRC.
"The revelations keep coming, and the Big Three networks keep ignoring them. There’s no question ABC, CBS and NBC have been hiding the Hunter scandals to help out their friends in the Biden administration," the MRC wrote in its conclusion. "Can they keep censoring it, even as Congress begins daily hearings?"
ABC News, CBS News and NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Bozell doesn’t think Wednesday’s hearing, titled "Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter’s Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story," will be given the appropriate amount of coverage.
"I will absolutely guarantee you that most, at best, will give lip service," Bozell said. "What you have got here in this laptop, is not just Hunter Biden --as corrupt as he could possibly be. You've got his father's name all over this, all over documents that are aligning him with China with these deals that were being made. Joe Biden's name is all over these documents," Bozell continued. "If it were a Republican, it would be breaking news."
Fox News’ Kelly Laco contributed to this report.
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