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Wednesday Morning Rant

Predictable

Things in the press may be a bit chaotic at the moment as the dust settles, but they still have a job to do and are doing it. They may be running around and pointing fingers at each other and lamenting their losses last month, but don't let that fool you. The press is still firmly a Party-affiliated system and will still carry whatever its told to carry, in a way that looks good for the progs.

Biden pardoning his son for running the family crime syndicate, playing with guns and getting coked up while doing both (allegedly, of course) is notable. Biden said he'd never do it. He's handing out favors to his son-cum-business-manager. He's making sure that Hunter's - and by extension his - skeletons stay buried in the deepest closet possible. This should cause, at the very least, a raised eyebrow in the press. But of course, it did not.

The press coverage of this is laughable from all the mainstream outlets and there is, as predictable as the sunrise, a common theme in it: Republicans. Either, "it's the Republicans' fault" or "but Republicans."

CNN:

One thing that particularly swayed the president: a belief that Republicans were trying to "break Hunter," as he said in his statement, while his son was still recovering from addiction. The president pointed to his son's five and a half years of sobriety "even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution."

He's just a misunderstood man struggling with addiction and nasty Republicans. Yawn.

AP:

The tax trial was also expected to showcase details about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which Republicans have seized on to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt.

They did the thing, guys! They did the thing! "Republicans Seize" is evergreen, especially in the shabby halls of the Associated Press.

NBC:

Pardoning him after that trial would have ignited a political firestorm for his father, who was campaigning for re-election. Republicans have for years attacked Hunter Biden over his foreign business dealings and accused him and the president of corruption. They have also argued that Hunter Biden was getting special treatment by the Justice Department because of his father’s political power.

GOP criticism reached a peak in July 2023 when Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in a deal with federal prosecutors over the tax and gun charges, which collapsed after a judge raised questions about it. That development led Attorney General Merrick Garland a couple weeks later to appoint the U.S. attorney investigating Hunter Biden, David Weiss, as a special counsel.

See? Those nasty Republicans are out there, making mountains out of molehills. Why, Biden even arranged to have a (laughably fake) special prosecutor assigned! The real story here is how the Republicans forced his hand!

WaPo:

The federal indictments came after a lengthy Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden's business dealings while his father was vice president, a period that Republicans have cited as evidence of broad corruption in the Biden family. No evidence has surfaced publicly to suggest any wrongdoing by Joe Biden.

Nope. No evidence. Not a scintilla. Not even the faintest whiff of bad behavior by Joe Biden. Not even the tiniest indication. Not that the WaPo chose to report, anyway.

State-owned press outlet NPR gives us our first major "but but but Republicans!" argument:

Trump also issued a flurry of pardons -- 74, to be exact -- in the final hours of his first term, with recipients including his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, rapper Lil Wayne and Al Pirro, the former husband of Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro.

He had previously pardoned many other members of his inner circle who had been charged with various crimes, including Republican operative Roger Stone, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner -- the father of his senior advisor, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

There's nothing to see here. Biden's pardon might be unseemly if you're one of those wreckers who's inclined to look for unseemliness, but it's nothing compared to Trump pardoning celebrities and his own people who were railroaded by the DoJ. Let's keep things in perspective.

When it comes to "but Republicans," though, the best I've seen so far is from Axios, also known as "baby's first prog rag:"

Why it matters: Biden's pardon for his son is the most sweeping presidential pardon in decades, since then-President Ford issued a blanket pardon for former President Nixon, Politico reported.

• His decision infuriated Republicans and raised questions regarding the precedent that it could set for future presidents.

Yes, but: Biden is far from the only president to have issued a pardon for a family member or close ally.

Axios will always be Axios. It's not even sporting to point it out anymore. It's like sandblasting a soup cracker.

Win or lose, at a zenith or a nadir, the press will always go to bat for the Party and its men - even if the Party Man in question is a stumbling disaster who is completely indefensible. Nothing about Biden is good, was ever good or will ever be good. It doesn't matter and the press is happy to tell you why it doesn't matter: Republicans, and specifically Trump.

No wonder circulation has collapsed. Nobody needs to subscribe when they can comfortably predict what they're going to say before they bother to drool out their talking points.