In an update to a story first published by our Kevin Tober, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC were still out to lunch as of Thursday morning on a stunning revelation a day earlier from the House Oversight Committee that $20 million in foreign money have gone out “to the Bidens and their associates,” including ties to oligarchs in China, Kazakhstan, and Russia.
While ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and NBC’s Today followed their evening counterparts with this act of election interference, Biden family corruption claims (including the new information about foreign oligarches) were taken seriously on the Fox News Channel and NewsNation.
Thursday’s Morning in America had NewsNation co-host Markie Martin tell viewers that “lawmakers are now on a collision course over the investigation into President Biden’s son Hunter’s...business dealings” as the House Oversight Committee “releas[ed] a new memo alleging bank records show Hunter Biden and his associates received millions of dollars from Russian and Kazakhstani [sic] oligarchs while his father was Vice President of the time.”
Even more revealing, Martin added, was “that then-Vice President also dined with two of the oligarchs himself and a Burisma representative.”
“The House GOP says they’ve now identified $20 million in foreign payments to the Biden family and associates, also grandchildren. But Democrats say it shows no evidence of any wrongdoing by President Biden directly or that he was involved in his son’s dealings,” she added.
Martin then brought in The Hill’s Emily Brooks, who said the report went “into more detail and documents more” than other revelations” and it was done without having had to “subpoena records from Biden family members directly”.
Despite claims from the White House and Biden’s Democratic allies, Brooks noted this was “really pushing back at a lot” on those “arguments”.
Martin seemed convinced, but clearly wanted to play it down the middle and thus played Devil’s advocate:
Okay. So no evidence of direct payment to — at that time, Vice President Joe Biden, but the bank records, as we mentioned, show the payments of up to $20 million to 10 members of the family, including grandkids. I understand there’s no direct tie to President Biden at this time. But is there any evidence of government policy being changed or altered as a result of these payments during that time frame?
Brooks countered that while direct allegations of policy changes as a result of said payments haven’t been waged, Republicans “are alluding to some things” such as “[t]here was a Russian oligarch who was in business” with Hunter Biden’s then-business partner Devon Archer and happened to have attended “a dinner with” Archer and both Hunter and Joe Biden.
“After that, millions of dollars payment [were] made and this report also notes that this Russian oligarch was not on a sanctions list that the Biden administration released after that Russian invasion of Ukraine,” she explained.
Both Fox and NewsNation only scratched the surface. More findings can be found in the House Oversight Committee’s Twitter thread here.
The networks did have time, however, for other things they found to be more important. On GMA, they had two minutes and 48 seconds on the supposed influence of the LGBTQ community on the hip hop scene as the genre turns 50 years old. Really.
Over on CBS, they had six minutes and 27 seconds bemoaning a woke capital fund being sued by the American Alliance for Equal Rights on grounds of discrimination because the funds are only made available to women of color.
NBC’s Today also had plenty of airtime they could have used to bring up the findings of the committee led by Congressman Jim Comer (R-KY), such as five minutes and 42 seconds that they gave away to touting the supposed financial boom of an entire sector dedicated to helping women through menopause.
This bias by omission and election interference was brought to you by advertisers such as Kohl’s (on NBC), Nature’s Bounty (on ABC), and Volkswagen (on CBS). Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
