The Right Wing Media’s OCD With Hunter Biden
All Roads Lead to the President’s Son
By Kevin Howley, July 10, 2023
“The story of the cocaine found at the White House will be with us for a while.” That’s the hot take from the conservative news site Hot Air: a sentiment that says more about right wing media’s political agenda than anything of the story’s lasting news value.
Indeed, like every story, op-ed, rumor or smear campaign targeting President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 election, all roads lead to Hunter, the president’s wayward son, who’s become a convenient foil for GOP pols and pundits.
From Hunter’s laptop to what’s all too predictably been dubbed “Cocainegate,” right wing operatives cast Joe’s boy as a drug-addled liar and cheat whose political connections are the only thing standing between him and serious prison time.
A review of recent headlines castigating Joe’s boy for wanton criminality and scurrilous behavior demonstrates the right’s obsessive-compulsive disorder with Hunter Biden.
Do You Belong to a Sex Club?
That’s the clickbait posing as a headline in Sloan Oliver’s recent piece for American Thinker pegged to an IRS whistleblower’s allegation, widely reported in conservative media, that Hunter wrote off sex club membership fees on his taxes.
Spoiler alert: there’s nothing terribly salacious in any of this. Instead, Oliver takes readers down a rabbit hole of well-worn conspiracy theories involving Hillary Clinton, James Comey, the DOJ, and “Democrat media.” And that’s the short list.
The takeaway: “It’s good to be a Dem – you can break the law, the DOJ won’t bother to investigate, and the media won’t report. If any federal agency is bold enough to investigate a Dem (such as the IRS’s investigation of Hunter), Biden’s DOJ squash the investigation. Even worse, the media go along and ignores the story.”
Head-spinning stuff, to be sure. Not least when a conservative outlet casts the IRS, the bane of House Republicans, as the good guys. Somebody pinch me.
Deadbeat Dads
Meanwhile, it’s pearl-clutching time over at WND, with this headline: “Hunter Biden’s Child Will Get Some of His Art as Part of Support Settlement.” For months now, conservative outlets have been howling about Hunter’s efforts to reduce his child support payments to Lunden Roberts, “the mother of their 4-year-old child.”
In the wake of the settlement, conservative outlets breathed a collective sigh of relief, even as they cried foul. “As RadarOnline.com reported, sources said that Hunter, 53, agreed to develop a relationship with Navy, the daughter he denied was his until a DNA test proved otherwise, Lunden caved to slashing his $20k monthly child support.”
Days earlier, RadarOnline called out the President and his staff for abandoning the little girl for political purposes, “Callous: Biden Aides Told to DELIBERATELY IGNORE Hunter’s Love Child Over Fears It Will Damage President’s ‘Family Man Image.’”
Gateway Pundit joined the fun with this rhetorical question: “‘Does Biden Acknowledge This Little Girl as His Granddaughter?’ – Reporter Confronts Karine Jean-Pierre About Biden’s Refusal to Acknowledge Hunter’s Lovechild (VIDEO).”
Talk of Hunter’s “lovechild” is so hot, even New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd offered her two cents in a snarky column titled, “It’s Seven Grandkids, Mr. President.” Much to the delight of the Murdoch-owned New York Post and Fox News.
All in the Family
It’d be one thing if the Biden’s were simply heartless bastards who put political ambition above flesh and blood. But the “Biden crime family” is beyond the pale. Enter the party of law and order to make things right.
The Daily Signal offers this bit of hero worship for the GOP: “Republicans Call for Probe of Retaliation Against IRS Whistleblowers in Hunter Biden Case.” Of course, retaliation is a two-way street, and Trumpian-style retribution is all the rage in Washington, DC these days.
What’s most revealing is how Republican charges of Biden family criminality have a familiar ring to it. The allegations echo the same sort of malfeasance Trump and company made commonplace. Consider this item from Gateway Pundit: “Rep. Tenney: Congress Has Evidence Joe Biden Was in the Room with Hunter When Shakedown WhatsApp Message Sent to Chinese Business Associate.”
Or how about this from Breitbart: “Hunter Biden CC’D on Email to VP Joe Biden About Call With Ukraine President.” Also from Breitbart: “Hunter Biden’s Prosecutor Worked For His Former Business Partner.”
Shakedowns. Ukrainian phone calls. Shady business deals. We’ve seen this movie before.
Between House Republicans providing cover for Trump’s reckless disregard for the rule of law and the right wing noise machine’s incessant game of gotcha with Hunter Biden, projection and payback are what passes for leadership ahead of next year’s presidential race.
It sure beats legislating.
Kevin Howley is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in “Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism,” “Social Movement Studies,” and “Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture.” He is the author and editor of several books including “Media Interventions” and “Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination.”
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From Hunter’s laptop to “Cocainegate,” right wing operatives cast Joe’s boy as a drug-addled liar whose political connections are the only thing standing between him and prison. A review of recent headlines castigating Joe’s boy for scurrilous behavior demonstrates the right’s obsessive-compulsive disorder with Hunter Biden. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
