Back then, in the proverbial sense, PBS was a widely respected news channel.
I’m talking about quality reporting and objective political analysis. The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, launched in 1983, was the network’s crown jewel. MacNeil retired in 1995. Lehrer left the show in 2011, two years after the show adopted a multi-anchor format. The rest, as they say, is history. A damn biased history, to be exact.
Fridays Consequence by PBS Newshour, the bias could not have been more blatant; it was absurd, full of whataboutisms, and, in my not-so-humble opinion, an insult to any clever and objective person unfortunate enough to watch it. Subject: The trial of Hunter Biden.
Host Amna Nawaz opened the celebrations with MSNBC anchor Jonathan Capehart and New York Times anchor David Brooks, saying:
I also want to hear your thoughts on the case against Hunter Biden that has been going on this week, a federal weapons charge in which he is accused of lying about his drug addiction when he purchased a gun in 2018.
Then Nawaz started commenting before asking a single question.
I think it’s fair to say it’s been a very coarse week. A lot of personal and embarrassing anecdotes and details have come out from a lot of people, from Beau Biden’s widow and his ex-wife – and also from Hunter Biden’s ex-wife. I’m just curious how you both see the place of this process in our political and social conversations.
Finally, the setup question:
And what effect do you think it has on people’s attention?
Capehart came out of the box and moaned senselessly:
Well, unfortunately, this trial is closely linked to the criminal proceedings against former President Donald Trump.
“Clinging to the Trump trial”? How so? What connection is there? None; Capehart was simply setting the stage for the “Hunter’s trial isn’t as bad as Trump’s trial” game.
Capehart continued (emphasis mine):
Republicans have tried to make Hunter Biden an issue for President Biden in an attempt to bring him and the – quote, end of quote – “Biden crime family” down. But what we have in this process in Wilmington has nothing to do with any kind of politics or anything else that the Republicans have talked about.
We’re talking about a drug addict who had a very bad problem, lied on some government forms, gets held accountable, and is held accountable in court where the whole mess comes to delicate.
And I think the only thing I can say for the benefit of the president and his family is that what they’re going through is what millions of American families are going through. And so I think this trial of Hunter Biden will ultimately fall into that category, and I think it will be very compassionate.
As for the second paragraph, Hunter’s lies are not just in the past tense – he continues to lie.
On the last paragraph: OK. The impact of drug addiction and alcoholism on millions of families across the country is a solemn problem and should not be dismissed. Still, Capehart’s efforts to show sympathy for Hunter Biden’s addiction in order to downplay the severity of his actions were pretty damn obvious.
David Brooks wasted no time talking melodramatically about indigent Hunter – and made a surprising (for Brooks) comment about the Trump trial:
I felt kind of soiled after the trial. I mean, he’s a lost soul. I mean, he’s in the shadow of his father. He’s in the shadow of his really amazing brother.
And he’s lost and he has a drug problem. And drug addiction leads to terrible things. It makes you run around in the middle of the night trying to find your supplies. And it’s unpleasant to watch. And so I just thought that this would not have been attempted if it had not been the President’s sonin my opinion.
And so I just found it scary that we are all exposed to this. And leave him some dignity. Will it affect the election? Absolutely not. I don’t think the conviction of Donald Trump will affect the election. Whatever happens with Hunter Biden, I don’t think it will affect the election.. Well, I don’t think so.
In the October 1 episode of the “PBS Newshour,” Brooks said mourned The Republicans’ reaction to the Trump trial: They preached that conservatives should accept the jury’s verdict:
“[If private virtue falls apart, the public order collapses. And we shouldn’t forget the fact this case was about a president, a former president, paying hush money to a porn star. I mean, in what world do we enter that?”
[…]
“And If he wins in the fall, the attack on the institutions will not only affect the justice system. It will go to the Department of Defense. It will go to the Attorney General’s Office. It will a comprehensive attack on American institutions. And that is what is at stake.”
PBS: We bring you one ridiculous episode after another of high-brow bias.
Related:
BREAKING NEWS: House committees refer criminal cases against Hunter and James Biden to the Justice Department
Hunter Biden’s legal strategy is cynical nonsense, but it could work
Donald Trump faces the right to bear arms in New York after conviction in Manhattan
