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MEDIA

Time’s Person Of The Year Reveals The West’s Stunning Weakness Under China’s Deadly Threat By Christopher Bedford

https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/14/times-person-of-the-year-revels-the-wests-stunning-weakness-under-chinas-deadly-threat/

Xi Jinping took a disaster and, through calculated lies and dictatorial cruelty, accomplished what seemed nearly impossible just last year.

Time Magazine’s Person of the Year is an embarrassment. Designed to acknowledge and document men, women and groups who’ve changed the world, historically it never promised to fill readers with warm and fuzzy feelings: Impact didn’t require good intentions, and didn’t necessitate good results.

Over much of its 93-year history, world-changers like Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Soong Mei-ling, and Adolf Hitler held the title. Aside from being very different people with different codes and different legacies, these people didn’t win simply by virtue of not being the other guy; and for the lion’s share of their lives, for good or evil they interacted with the world outside the comforts of their own homes.

In modern years, however, winners have moved away from the sometimes uncomfortable toward feel-gooders, like Greta Thunberg, a child whose accomplishments peak at getting adults to applaud her tantrums.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, hardly world-shaping visionaries, fit comfortably into this trend. “Defeating the Minotaur was one thing; finding the way out of the labyrinth is another,” read the cringeworthy prose accompanying Time’s puff piece. “A dark winter has descended, and there will be no rest for the victors.”

So, who should have earned the title this year? Who changed the world in ways that just a short while ago we would have struggled to imagine? There’s only one person, and he isn’t included in runner-ups Donald Trump, Anthony Fauci, or “the movement for racial justice.” He is China’s brutal dictator, Xi Jinping.

Consider the evidence. At the dawn of 2020, Xi had a massive problem on his hands. For the third time in 23 years, China had lost control of a deadly disease, and this time evidence placed its origin in suspiciously close proximity to a secretive Chinese government bio laboratory.

Hunter Biden News Should Shame Dismissive Media Outlets By Mark Hemingway

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/12/14/hunter_biden_news_should_shame_dismissive_media_outlets_144837.html

Hunter Biden announced Wednesday he is under federal investigation for his financial dealings in foreign countries, including China. While the news sent shockwaves through Washington, D.C., it shouldn’t have been surprising. The announcement confirms many of the allegations of corruption that were leveled against Hunter Biden in the months leading up to the November elections – allegations the media steadfastly refused to cover.

The nation’s largest social media companies went further: They made the shocking decision to actively censor the New York Post’s eye-opening scoop revealing evidence of Joe Biden’s son’s influence peddling that was recovered from an abandoned laptop. Twitter locked the newspaper out of its own account for weeks. Facebook prevented the Post’s story from being widely distributed, even though neither Joe Biden nor his campaign disputed the authenticity of the documents published by the paper.

In retrospect, not only do the documents appear to be authentic, but a Daily Beast report Thursday notes evidence that the Hunter Biden investigation was hiding in plain sight. One of the FBI documents from the laptop published by the Post “included a case number that had the code associated with an ongoing federal money laundering investigation in Delaware, according to several law enforcement officials who reviewed the document. Another document — one with a grand jury subpoena number — appeared to show the initials of two assistant U.S. attorneys linked to the Wilmington, Delaware, office.” Hunter Biden claims he only learned of the  investigation this past week, but these documents suggest otherwise.

Media’s pre-election burial of Hunter Biden story proves dereliction of duty By Joe Concha,

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/529736-medias-pre-election-burial-of-hunter-biden-story-proves-dereliction-of

There are two kinds of bias in the media. First there is the kind we regularly see from many – not all – outlets in broad daylight, which includes openly rooting for one political party while echoing rapid-response opposition research against another. And then there is the more invisible, insidious variety — the bias of omission.

If teaching a class in the latter, as it pertains to the bombshell admission that President-elect Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has been under grand jury investigation for “tax affairs” by the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware, then the bias of omission absolutely has been applied in the most blatant manner. 

To be clear, omission-bias is when an outlet or publication purposely suppresses or outright ignores a newsworthy story that is carried by others. In this case, the “others” initially was an exclusive in the New York Post, which was dismissed immediately by other media outlets and by Democrats as Russian disinformation or a smear campaign by the Trump administration.

And not just dismissed, either. The story was outright banned from public discourse by social media giant Twitter, which limited its members from sharing a New York Post report on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China. This New York Post report wasn’t just the usual “he-said, she-said” hearsay that we once saw on a daily basis as it pertained to alleged Russian collusion and the Trump campaign. It contained actual emails from Hunter Biden’s own laptop.

The Disgraceful Hunter Biden Cover-Up By David Harsanyi

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/the-disgraceful-hunter-biden-cover-up/?itm_campaign=headline-testing-the-disgraceful-hunter-biden-cover-up&itm

It was a ‘conspiracy’ theory shouted down and stifled by the media establishment. Until it wasn’t.

I t’s now clear that the Hunter Biden story was real, with Hunter himself acknowledging a federal probe into his taxes — one that reportedly began in 2018. Really, it was always clear. Yet, when the New York Post broke the details, virtually the entire journalistic establishment and left-wing punditsphere defamed the newspaper, claiming it was passing on Russian “disinformation” or partisan fabrications.

The political media quickly began pumping out process stories about the alleged discord in the Post’s newsroom and about the problems with the reporting. In so doing, of course, they did practically no reporting on the substantive allegations that Joe Biden’s family had spent years cashing in on his influence. Tech companies, spurred on by these censorious journalists, shut down the account of one of America’s most-read newspapers to inhibit users from reading the story. It was completely unprecedented.

At the time, I argued that the Post (where I contribute to the editorial page) used the same ethical and journalistic standards that the media have employed for decades. But, in truth, it exercised a higher standard of professionalism than most outlets reporting on the Russia collusion hysteria did for three-plus years. It certainly exhibited a higher ethical standard than Jeffrey Goldberg did in his Atlantic piece claiming that Donald Trump had besmirched the American military — which political journalists had no problem sharing as irrefutable and unimpeachable fact.

In October, the New York Times ran a piece headlined, “New York Post Published Hunter Biden Report Amid Newsroom Doubts.” Today, the same Times reports that, “Biden team has rejected some of the claims made in the Post articles, but has not disputed the authenticity of the files upon which they were based.”

Hunter Biden news embarrasses media defenders by Byron York

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-yorks-daily-memo-hunter-biden-news-embarrasses-media-defenders

Late Wednesday afternoon, Hunter Biden announced that he is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney in Delaware. “They are investigating my tax affairs,” Biden wrote, adding that he is confident a “professional and objective” investigation will clear him. For his part, Biden’s father, President-elect Joe Biden, released a statement through his transition office decrying the “vicious personal attacks” on his son in recent years.

Several hours later, Politico reported that the investigation “has been more extensive than a statement from Hunter Biden indicates,” to include “potential money laundering and Hunter Biden’s foreign ties.” The New York Times reported that the money laundering part “failed to gain traction after FBI agents were unable to gather enough evidence for a prosecution.”

The investigation apparently began in 2018 and remained a secret until this week. Besides raising questions about Hunter Biden’s conduct — it’s not surprising that taxes are an issue for a person who has gotten large sums of foreign money under suspicious circumstances — it also raises questions about the politics and media coverage of the president-elect’s son.

Covid and the New Age of Censorship It doesn’t promote public health when media and tech companies stifle scientific debate. By Alex Berenson

https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-and-the-new-age-of-censorship-11607381415?mod=djemalertNEWS

Information has never been more plentiful or easier to distribute. Yet we are sliding into a new age of censorship and suppression, encouraged by technology giants and traditional media companies. As someone who’s been falsely characterized as a coronavirus “denier,” I have seen this crisis firsthand.

Since June, Amazon has twice tried to suppress self-published booklets I have written about Covid-19 and the response to it. These booklets don’t contain conspiracy theories. Like the scientists who wrote the Great Barrington Declaration, I simply believe many measures to control the coronavirus have been damaging, counterproductive and unsupported by science.

Amazon has said earlier that “as a bookseller, we believe that providing access to the written word is important, including books that some may find objectionable.” The company sells “Mein Kampf” and “The Anarchist’s Cookbook.” But when it comes to Covid, Amazon has a different standard. At least half a dozen other authors have emailed me that their books have been pulled. Amazon won’t disclose how many, or other details about how it picks books to censor.

Google-owned YouTube censors even more aggressively. The company disclosed in October that it had pulled more than 200,000 videos about the epidemic—including one from Scott Atlas, a physician who was advising President Trump. Facebook has not only censored videos and attached warning labels or “fact checks” to news articles, but removed groups that oppose lockdowns and other restrictions.

Will Establishment Media Cover Biden as President? They covered for him to get Trump out of office. Now will they actually start covering him with real reporting? by J.T. Young December

https://spectator.org/biden-media-coverage/

Having created his presidency, how will establishment media cover President Biden? With the roles so different and so separated, it is easy to forget that establishment media have been instrumental throughout Biden’s three-decade-long presidential quest. In his first two campaigns, establishment media sank Biden by covering him; in his latest, they saved Biden by not covering him. Now with Biden elected, which role will they assume?

The first role establishment media played in Biden campaigns was aggressively direct.

In contrast to their direct role in his first two presidential campaigns, establishment media’s role in Biden’s third presidential campaign has been indirect at best.

In 1988, during his first campaign, they single-handedly destroyed Biden by revealing a pattern of plagiarism. Initially, revelations showed Biden had lifted portions from a speech by UK Labor politician Neil Kinnock. Then came more: “borrowings” from Hubert Humphrey and Robert Kennedy. Finally, they reported that Biden had failed a Syracuse University law course because he used five pages of a law-review publication without attribution.

In 2007, during his second campaign, establishment media again struck. This time they helped disseminate Biden’s offensively back-handed compliment of Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean a nice-looking guy.” A marginal candidate already, Biden sank further, finally dropping out after receiving only 1 percent of support in the 2008 Iowa caucuses.

In contrast to their direct role in his first two presidential campaigns, establishment media’s role in Biden’s third presidential campaign has been indirect at best. Instead of essentially covering him to death, this time they effectively did not cover him at all.

In the 2020 campaign, establishment media did not force Biden into any mistakes or awkward encounters. When he blundered, they did not pursue. When they could have destroyed him, following disappointing Iowa and New Hampshire finishes, they held back.

Journalists Turn on Free Expression By David Harsanyi

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/journalists-turn-on-free-expression/

Mainstream journalists have used their access to a massive audience to mislead the public in many ways, but this isn’t a free-speech problem.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt, The New Yorker’s Steve Coll contends that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s “profound” support of free speech — oh, how I wish that were true — is problematic because “free speech, a principle that we hold sacred, is being weaponized against the principles of journalism.”

Journalism has turned on free speech, the one belief that had been somewhat impervious to the ideological tendencies of most editors and reporters. There’s absolutely nothing in Coll’s comments — nor in Hunt’s begging a question about the alleged corrosive effects of unfettered speech — which demonstrates that either are particularly concerned about the future of free expression, much less that either hold the principle as “sacred.”

The notion that Facebook’s reluctance to limit users is akin to neglecting efforts to “preserve democracy,” as Coll ludicrously suggests, is also another example of how the contemporary usage of “democracy” means little more than “fulfilling the wishes of liberals.”

If you believe Americans are too stupid to hear wrongthink, transgressive ideas, and, yes, fake news, you’re not a fan of the small-l liberal conception of free expression. That’s fine. Those ideas seem to be falling into disfavor with many. But the sanctity of free speech isn’t predicated on making sure people hear the right things, it’s predicated on letting everyone have their say. Because as always, the question becomes who decides what expression is acceptable. I’m not keen on having the fatuous media reporters at CNN or activist “fact-checkers” at the Washington Post adjudicating what is and isn’t permissible for mass consumption.

Trump Won His Other Campaign — to Destroy Media Credibility . By Larry Elder

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/12/03/trump_won_his_other_campaign_–_to_destroy_media_credibility_144775.html

“For four years, major media, along with their Democratic comrades, banded together to bring down Trump. They appear to have succeeded. But as to Trump’s campaign to expose the media’s blatant, often vicious anti-Republican bias so that much of America will never again trust it, Trump won. Huge.”

Convinced that President Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection, the media suddenly became less hysterical. Just like that, the media, at least to some degree, rediscovered concepts such as fairness and perspective, AWOL the last four years. 

Two weeks after the election, New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof haltingly, grudgingly and reluctantly, admitted that yes, Trump was right. Banning in-person school education to fight COVID-19 was and is bad policy. Kristof wrote: “Some things are true even though President Trump says them. Trump has been demanding for months that schools reopen, and on that he seems to have been largely right. Schools, especially elementary schools, do not appear to have been major sources of coronavirus transmission, and remote learning is proving to be a catastrophe for many low-income children.” Kristof, of course, could not acknowledge Trump’s correct judgement without the “somethings are true even though Trump says them” snark. But remember, this is The New York Times, a paper that has not endorsed a Republican for president since 1956. Little steps.

Kristof even took a Trump-like swipe at Democratic-run cities. And, whether inadvertently or not, he made the case for K-12 vouchers for inner city kids: “So Democrats helped preside over school closures that have devastated millions of families and damaged children’s futures. Cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., have closed schools while allowing restaurants to operate. … School closures magnify these inequities, as many private schools remain open and affluent parents are better able to help kids adjust to remote learning. At the same time, low-income children fall even further behind.”

NeverTrump Republicans disgrace themselves more every day By Pamela Garber

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/12/nevertrump_republicans_disgrace_themselves_more_every_day.html

The GOP could hold a fundraiser by having a contest for the most condemning anti-Trump quote.  My personal favorite of the moment is by National Review editor Rich Lowry:

Mr. Trump’s central failing as president has been his inability to distinguish between his personal interest and the public interest. No president in memory has made less of an effort to allow the institution of the presidency to shape him and to conform to the constraints it imposes.

Problem is, We the People may never be allowed to hold fundraisers again — not without approval.  Some fundraisers are more equal than others.  The other problem is that the quote is unintentionally complimentary.  President Trump was elected to be himself, as is — no “reshaping.”

Warrior Writers

Oh, noteworthy writers writing noteworthy writings.  You demonize Sidney Powell and Lin Wood.  You mock our president.  You think you are woefully wise interpreters of mediocrity as a so-called ill informed crowd stands up for the truth at a rally.  The Georgia evidence of a suitcase under the table means nothing; neither does the ownership of the very voting machines relied on for our supposed free and fair election.  To sum up your well read musings, the steady erosion of our freedom means nothing to you and your ilk.  President Trump’s demeanor is still your number-one political cause.  Now he’s not conceding correctly — not in the Miss Manners McCain way of all the better mannered men that make up the real Republican Party.

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