Drew Holden Profile picture
Managing editor at @AmerCompass, @Commonplc. Link to my Substack about the media, @Holden_Court, is below. Maker of đź§µthreadsđź§µ

Dec 30, 2024, 26 tweets

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The gov’t finally released pictures of Biden with his son Hunter’s business partners.

You may remember the corporate press alleging for years that there’s no evidence Biden had any contact with Hunter’s shady businesses.

I think some corrections are in order. ⤵️

For years, the corporate press ran cover for claims that President Biden wasn’t involved in Hunter’s unsavory business dealings, particularly with foreign governments.

That was all a sham.

I think @nytimes should correct the record now that we know their reporting is false.

If this story is worth reporting on — and it appears that @washingtonpost thought it was, at least when the narrative helped Democrats — then it should be worth following up when we get new information that makes clear the Post reported in error.

Right?

Why wouldn’t the @washingtonpost update their headlines that currently omit that the President’s brother and son lied to Congress?

Aren’t these relevant details in this story?

And particularly since @washingtonpost used this assertion — that Biden wasn’t tied to his son’s business dealings — as a political cudgel against the GOP’s impeachment efforts, leaving the lie unremarked upon obviously doesn’t help readers.

It wasn’t as if the evidence of Biden’s involvement wasn’t already out there, as @ChuckRossDC, @SaysSimonson, and @AndrewKerrNC reported back in June 2023.

Now we’ve got Biden’s own photos to make it inescapable.

And of course it wasn’t just the Times and the Post who helped the president cover up this involvement.

@CNN, I think you’ve got some corrections to make, too. Not sure the “Biden fired back” framing still works.

Maybe “Biden lied again”?

Rather than investigate these claims, the corporate press, en masse, rose in defense of Biden’s integrity, using the clearly erroneous statements of **Biden’s own family members** as evidence.

@NBCNews helped kick it off in 2020.

Remember when all Hunter was doing was selling the “illusion” of access to his father? Not real contact with him?

Do these images look like an illusion, @AP?

And while we’re at it, @AP, I think this headline needs correcting, too.

@ABC, care to revisit this highlighted line?

Or the idea that the idea of Biden’s involvement is a Republican “smear”?

@MSNBC, maybe it’s a bad idea to rely on partisans like @RepDanGoldman to provide “news” like this?

Now the evidence is undeniable.

What really kills me about this (admittedly old) take from @AliVelshi @VelshiMSNBC is the outrage at the suggestion.

#ForFactsSake it might be time for a correction!

@Reuters, countless outlets around the world rely on you for accurate and honest coverage.

Will you correct this headline, now that the statement is clearly false? How about the substance of the piece? I even highlighted it for you.

@TIME, we now know more. Don’t you think you owe it to your readers to update this to reflect that, and to correct your erroneous reporting?

This “evidence” was hidden by the government. Isn’t the press meant to hold them to account?

I believe this title could easily be corrected to “Hunter Biden lies to Congress about his father’s involvement in his business dealings,” @CBSNews

@factcheckdotorg, isn’t your job to check the facts?

I think this page is worth an update, particularly the highlighted sections.

What gets me is the quote in the headline, @USATODAY.

Really helps convey your lack of interest in getting to the truth.

@business I’m running short on energy but, again, you don’t have to just quote a politician for your headline.

They aren’t always telling the truth. Shocker, I know.

@Independent really quoted “President Biden's son ensured there was always a 'clear boundary' between his father and his business dealings” with a straight face huh.

I’ve said this what feels like a thousand times, but the press should take its role as the first rough draft of history seriously.

They bit on a lie from a political family. The lie has been revealed.

They should correct the lie in their reporting.

This is how lies get laundered into the history books: because the people responsible for writing that history in real time screw up and don’t correct it.

Expecting them to do the latter in the wake of the former really isn’t too much to ask.

And of course, it’s worth asking why the media took this fabrication at face value, rather than investigate whether the assertions by various Bidens were true.

But I think the answer there is easier: the press doesn’t see Dems as worth scrutinizing.

That disposition shows.

For those keeping track at home, this release was 25 days — less than a month — after Biden’s sweeping pardon of his son.

A coincidence, I’m sure.

If you like these kinds of threads, you should follow my newsletter, @Holden_Court. You can subscribe here: open.substack.com/pub/drewholden

@Holden_Court and if you’d like to kick me some beer money for keeping tabs on the corporate press stories you’d rather forget, I’ve got a beer fund: paypal.com/donate/?busine…

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