We had a news weekend that featured uncertainty and a wholesale substitution of speculation for reported fact.
At different times, the halted Russian militia rebellion was either a would-be coup or a serious personality flap between militia leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group and the Kremlin’s military leaders. Depending on who was offering commentary, it was either the most dangerous moment for international peace in recent years or a sign of Vladimir Putin’s vulnerability.
The only thing we knew for sure was that we knew little about the facts of the matter, none of which stopped armchair commentators from telling us what it all meant.
But much the same was true for reports about the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning 50 years of presumed rights to abortion and opening the state legislative floodgates to a patchwork of abortion restrictions that is force-feeding uncertainty to women across the country. Again, depending on the media source, the number of abortions is up or down, substantially, or not, and always described in percentage changes, not actual reported abortions presumably in clinics in states where many abortions remain legal. Naturally, there is no way to account for pill-induced abortions, you wouldn’t know that from the conclusions being bandied about.
Indeed, the methodology of reporting on such trends should be part of any credible report.
On NBC News, the anchor was willing to speculate that adoptions are up because of the Dobbs decision alone, while the report that followed focused on one adoption service in Texas that said there was no way to tell. Again, speculation rather than reporting – which is difficult because of delays in actual record-keeping that can serve as the basis.
And, of course, there was the perpetual story about what crimes Hunter Biden should have been charged with rather than the plea deal reached on two tax evasion counts, since paid, and a paperwork charge for a gun purchase in which Biden did not own up to being a drug addict.
Opinions Abound, Facts Are Short
Indeed, during an appearance on Fox & Friends, Fox commentator Maria Bartiromo suggested that the media was spending too much time on the Russia story and ignoring the Hunter Biden story.
“Well, the White House wanted to give the media something else to cover, and this is the MO,” she said, as if it was a Biden-led militia that took over a regional Russian military headquarters and pointed the militia towards Moscow. “They’re covering everything about Russia and The Wagner Group as if it matters to the US right now.”
Hmm. Seems to me that loss of control in a country with that many nuclear weapons and an invading army in neighboring Ukraine might be a tad concerning.
But the real bite on the Hunter Biden story is not about the charges to which he will enter his formal pleas shortly, but about criminal charges not yet brought against him and the entire “Biden Crime Family,” as Breitbart’s headlines chant.
Just for review, David Weiss, a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney in Delaware was given the Hunter Biden portfolio five years ago, and says he was given a free hand to investigate whatever came up. After the recent plea deals, he suggested he may do more probing. For that matter, Attorney General Merrick Garland added his voice on Friday to underscore that he kept Weiss on after Trump was gone and gave him the kind of independence and latitude usually afforded a special council to run the case, Garland – backed by Weiss himself — denied interfering, guiding, delaying, or otherwise affecting Weiss’ decision-making as a prosecutor.
But every day, right-leaning media channels are repeating headlines and news stories usually based on a public statement by single Republican politicians who speak serially that a document or an electronic message shows that Biden family members took millions of dollars in bribes, presumably in return for policy sway in their direction from former Vice President Joe Biden.
Pre-Committed Conclusions
The problem for anyone not pre-committed to the outcome of such allegations is that the facts here are thin, and there is too little evidence as the basis of some crime to be named. And where there are facts, they may confuse rather than clarify.
So, we’re hearing about a 2017 What’s App message from Hunter to a Chinese businessman in which Hunter claimed he was sitting by his father and vaguely threatening something never identified unless money – presumably the $5 million bribe in question – was paid. Of course, in July, 2017 Joe Biden was no longer vice president, and no one has linked the current president to be by Hunter’s side or involved in whatever was happening in that message.
Last Thursday, Republicans in Congress released transcripts from two IRS whistleblowers who claimed there had been recommendations for more serious tax charges against Hunter Biden, including this What’s App message. The New York Times reported that one of the whistleblowers, IRS agent Gary Shapley, also told Congress that there was evidence some of Hunter Biden’s claims of his father’s support in his business dealings were really “wishful thinking.” CNN reported that a second, unnamed whistleblower spoke with Congress, “saying prosecutors questioned whether they could be sure Hunter Biden was telling the truth that his father was actually in the room in the messages.”
None of that stops the like of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, from booming his condemnation and insistence on investigation, which is picked up as news and repeated as multiple GOP lawmakers say the same thing in turn.
Of course, to be a successful bribe, the participants in the scheme would have to know that three years later, Joe Biden would come out of retirement, win the election for president, and carry out whatever his end of the bargain would entail.
The news would be that any of these allegations are nailed down with substantial enough evidence to warrant criminal charges.
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