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THE NEW ALLEGED leaks related to Hunter Biden were trending on the internet and made their way around the world via apps like Telegram. However, the mainstream media virtually failed to cover the scandal and almost completely ignored the content — unverified — that could link the U.S. president’s son to some illegal activities such as drug possession.
It’s been almost a week since the alleged leak on the 4Chan platform (a small forum where users can post comments and share images), and only a few media outlets talked about or covered to some extent the content attributed to the hacking of Hunter Biden’s iCloud account.
While the MSM ignored the controversial content (which allegedly include videos, photos, and screenshots attributed to Hunter Biden), they quickly mobilized to attack the 4Chan platform and Tucker Carlson, the only cable news host who has spoken about the controversy linked to Hunter Biden.
Rolling Stone and the age-old tactic of killing the messenger.
When bad news arrives, it is common that, instead of criticizing its protagonist, all the attention is turned against the one who brought the bad news.
In this case, for the left and their like-minded media, Hunter Biden has represented endless bad news for a long time, especially since that New York Post exclusive in October 2020 that reportedly linked then-presidential candidate Joe Biden to his son’s shady business dealings in Ukraine. Since then, much of the progressive press has multiplied efforts to ignore and discredit information that links Hunter Biden to controversial foreign business dealings or troubled private life.
A clear example of the above is perfectly represented by Rolling Stone Magazine which, in its eagerness to defend Hunter Biden, discredited the most recent leak by attacking 4Chan, Tucker Carlson, and conservatives who dare to criticize and investigate President Biden’s son.
According to Kat Bouza, who wrote the piece against Tucker and the platform, 4Chan is a network that promotes violence, racism, and misogyny that was extolled by the Fox News host as a bastion of free speech.
However, what Tucker said about 4Chan is far from that approach. The host only commented that the platform is “some sort of website that’s, basically not very moderated; it’s kind of the website of last resort for people who want to get information out there but can’t because everything is so completely censored at this point.”
The statement is far from being a great compliment, as Bouza focuses on his attack; however, it contains a lot of factual bases, as almost no media dared to publish articles or reviews related to the leak. Something similar to what happened in October 2020, when the Post revealed part of the contents of the laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden in Delaware. That whole exclusive was systematically ignored by the national press. It was even censored by Twitter and Facebook.
In fact, the story was not only buried by the mainstream media in the middle of the election season, but also “disproved” and questioned by the liberal press itself, until they finally had to acknowledge the veracity of the computer and its contents.
Bouza’s article in Rolling Stone, in addition to deliberately avoiding analyzing the alleged new content linked to Hunter Biden, also seeks to downplay the whole controversy related to the laptop abandoned in Delaware: “The younger Biden’s laptop has developed into a certain conservative firebrand in recent years — a “but her emails!” for the post-2016 election era.”
In other words, for Rolling Stone, Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings in China, Ukraine, and the troubled private life of the president’s son are neither newsworthy nor of national interest. It is merely fodder for the Republican narrative.
VICE emulating Rolling Stone
Following in the footsteps of Kat Bouza at Rolling Stone, VICE reporter David Gilbert — who claims to write “about the internet, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and how all of those things are increasingly influencing our everyday lives”— also misrepresented Tucker’s claims about 4Chan while demonizing the platform.
“The fringe message board 4chan has been called a lot of things over the years: The birthplace of QAnon. A radicalization pipeline for mass shooters. A cesspool of white supremacy, racism, and revenge porn,” Gilbert wrote, a day after Bouza.
“What it hasn’t been known as is a bastion of free speech that’s saving the world from Big Tech’s supposed anti-conservative censorship” added Reporter, referencing Tucker Carlson’s comments.
As in Rolling Stone, the piece published in VICE does not seek at all to report on the new leak splashing Hunter Biden, but aims to stigmatize those who share or talk about the content by associating them with “QAnon followers, and far-right extremists” who have taken advantage of the alleged hack to criticize the Biden family.
In short, the progressive press is no longer just ignoring the Hunter Biden scandals, but attacking the few who dare to expose them in the public sphere.
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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