When the Hunter Biden charges were announced and led to the recidivist First Son not having to serve any jail time, it was just a formality that the press would stampede to the defense of all involved. Over the past couple of days, we have heard every implausible explanation offered, from the charges being too steep to this plea deal being right in line with standard sentencing for these types of crimes.
There has been no need in the press to attempt reconciling those two opposing positions, they are just allowed to stand.
I have spotted another uniform reaction across the journalism spectrum – the sympathetic approach to how these crimes and the charges from Hunter have affected President Biden. This is quite a departure for the media, and it goes so very far in cementing the concept that the press in this country operates with two sets of standards.
After all, it was just one presidency ago when the children of the president were not looked at favorably and did not have journalists looking askance at problems. Instead, the press sought them out with the Trump family, and any perceived violation of norms would be held up as proof of familial corruption. Hell, Ivanka was said to have violated the law when she took a photo with a can of beans.
The web of Biden family payoffs from international sources and Hunter’s lengthy rap sheet has the newsmakers operating in the complete opposite direction. No longer do they see patterns of nefarious behavior. Instead, this is all an unfair witch hunt, and the negative emotional impact on the president is what they consider to be the real story. Just look at the script followed by so many outlets.
At the Associated Press, they could have a somber violin concerto playing in the background if you read their fawning piece on the website. (I double-checked; they don’t. I imagined the strings as I read the piece.) They, too, approach this as how those venal Republicans have done this to the president, a man immensely proud of his addicted faux artist of a son.