Something surprising happened early Thursday morning: The New York Times' hit podcast, "The Daily," addressed the metastasizing Hunter Biden scandal. Since the President's son left a laptop containing damning evidence both personal and professional in a computer repair shop, the liberal mainstream media has done its best to bury its head in the sand when it comes to Hunter's crimes and misdemeanors. They dismissed Hunter's laptop Russian disinformation. They argued that Hunter's crimes of lying to acquire a gun and cheating on his taxes would have been thrown out of court had they been committed by anyone else. And they routinely ignored Hunter Biden's penchant for influence peddling to America's foreign adversaries.
So it was surprising so see the liberal media take a turn this week, admitting something that's been obvious to the rest of us for years which they worked so hard to suppress. But the reversal, too, follows a pattern. The media is not only adept at hiding from the truth; when it can no longer be denied, members of our legacy press simply move the goal post.
The pattern has three steps: First, they call the story they don't like fake news or disinformation. Next, they admit it's happening, but they argue it's no big deal. Finally, they pivot to their favorite whataboutism: But what about Trump.
You can see the media following this pattern on any number of issues they've gotten wrong, but nowhere is it as clear as it's been with the Hunter Biden scandals. Here is a breakdown of the media's evolution when it comes to Hunter Biden.
Step One: It's Fake News
The media and the Democrats' first step whenever anything comes out that paints their side in an unflattering light is always the same: This thing isn't happening. It's fake news. It's Russian disinformation. It's a conspiracy.
That's what Joe Biden told the country from the presidential debate stage regarding Hunter Biden's laptop, which we now know was already in possession of the FBI for over a year when the President told that lie. Biden called the laptop a "Russian plan" and a "bunch of garbage" that "nobody believes."
And from Biden, the canard spread downward to legacy media outlets across the nation: "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say" was the headline from Politico in late October of 2020. "50 former intelligence officials warn NY Post story sounds like Russian disinformation," The Hill informed readers. So effective was the media's conviction that 41 percent of Americans still believe the laptop was Russian disinformation, despite the fact that the people who made up the canard have been exposed as working hand in hard with the Biden campaign.
Biden to this day has not had to account to the American people for lying about the laptop—a key piece of evidence guiding the IRS and DOJ investigation against Hunter Biden. But it was far from the only lie. President Biden also claimed he never spoke to his son regarding Hunter's business dealings, which have now come under the lens of federal prosecutors—another claim repeated ad nauseum by the liberal media. In April of last year, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stood by that claim, and despite what we now know, was given a cushy hosting gig at MSNBC.
"The president has said that he never spoke with his son about his overseas business dealings. Is that still the case?" Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked Psaki at the time.
"Yes," Psaki replied.
Did you get that? It never happened.
The problem for the Democrats and their media allies is that their narratives are often undone by more evidence coming to light. This happened in the Hunter Biden case recently when Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, testified before Congress that as Vice President, Joe Biden had been put on the phone 20 times with Hunter's business associates connected with foreign governments. And it's this kind of evidence that forces the Democrats to move on to the next stage, moving the goalpost from "It's not happening" to "So what if it is?"
Step Two: "So What?"
The "So What" stage, also known as the "Everyone Does It" or the "It's No Big Deal" stage, is where the media starts to minimize the wreckage. That's why in recent weeks, you've started to hear media pundits saying some version of, "Okay, President Biden did talk to Hunter Biden's partners, but he never discussed business with them." This is the hedge you now get from White House Press Secretary Karrie Jean Pierre as well as Democrat Party allies of the President. Rep. Daniel Goldman, for example, made the false claim on July 31 that the President "never claimed" he has not spoken to any of Hunter Biden's associates. He even concluded it would be a "preposterous premise" to not have meet-and-greets with those associates.
This is the normalization process they turn to when someone on their side is caught out misbehaving: Everyone does it, it's no big deal, who wouldn't do it? In other words, "This thing we told wasn't happening actually is happening and everyone does it."
Thus, former Vox journalist and TwitterX clip editor Aaron Rupar tweeted, "I can't believe the children of famous and powerful people never thought of cashing in on their family name until Hunter Biden".
i can't believe the children of famous and powerful people never thought of cashing in on their family name until Hunter Biden
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 13, 2023
The goalpost has been moved from "This isn't happening" to "Everyone does it, it's a nothingburger!" Washington Post's Philip Bump offers a masterclass in this with recent headlines like, "Where's the bribe, James Comer?" and "The GOP 'bribery' allegations against Biden remain transparently thin" from this past June.
But sometimes the evidence is too strong even for "Everyone is doing it," like the latest revelations that as Vice President, Joe Biden apparently use of the pseudonym "Robert L. Peters." That's when they turn to the last stage: Trump.
Stage Three: "But Trump"
When every goalpost has been moved as far as they can move it, the media and the Democrats will simply settle on "But Trump," the last refuge of their gaslighting. They do this rather than concede any character flaws of the current president, who was specifically elected to not be Donald Trump.
Which brings me back to the New York Times podcast. In finally acknowledging that a plea deal to keep Hunter Biden out of jail over his crimes, the host and his guest immediately pivot, arguing that Hunter Biden wanted immunity as part of his plea deal "because if his father loses re-election and Donald Trump becomes President, Donald Trump has essentially said he will use the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies," says Times journalist Michael Schmidt. Trump wants to use the DOJ to pursue his political adversaries, you see. "One of the most important things that I think gets lost in the shuffle of Trump is his desires to use the powers of the federal government proactively against those he doesn't like," says Schmidt, in one of the greatest acts of journalistic projection perhaps ever performed.
Because of course, it is President Biden who has been using the DOJ to pursue his leading political adversary, with the help of the media. Make no mistake about it: The wall to wall coverage of Trump's endless indictments—each of which came on the heels of a Hunter Biden revelation—is the manifestation of stage three of moving the goalposts.
When it comes to President Biden and his ties to his son's business dealings, the media for now has settled on the fact there is no smoking gun pointing directly at the President, even as his son and extended family members collected millions of dollars from Russian, Ukrainian, and Chinese state entities. The existence of emails, WhatsApp messages, text messages, witness testimony under oath, and whistleblowers testifying to Congress has forced them to move from "Russian disinformation" to "So what" to now "But Trump," which they're going hard at.
It's all they have left. The timing of the Trump indictments should remove any doubt that Trump's primary role now is as a distraction for the Democrats and their obedient liberal press.
Stephen L. Miller has written for National Review, The Spectator, the New York Post and Fox News, and hosts the independent podcast Versus Media on Substack.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
