Drew Holden Profile picture
Dec 30, 2024 • 26 tweets • 12 min read • Read on X
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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. ⤵️ Image
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. Image
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? Image
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? Image
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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. Image
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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. Image
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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”? Image
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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. Image
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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? Image
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And while we’re at it, @AP, I think this headline needs correcting, too. Image
@ABC, care to revisit this highlighted line?

Or the idea that the idea of Biden’s involvement is a Republican “smear”? Image
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@MSNBC, maybe it’s a bad idea to rely on partisans like @RepDanGoldman to provide “news” like this?

Now the evidence is undeniable. Image
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! Image
@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. Image
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@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? Image
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I believe this title could easily be corrected to “Hunter Biden lies to Congress about his father’s involvement in his business dealings,” @CBSNews Image
@factcheckdotorg, isn’t your job to check the facts?

I think this page is worth an update, particularly the highlighted sections. Image
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What gets me is the quote in the headline, @USATODAY.

Really helps convey your lack of interest in getting to the truth. Image
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@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. Image
@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. Image
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. Image
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If you like these kinds of threads, you should follow my newsletter, @Holden_Court. You can subscribe here: open.substack.com/pub/drewholdenImage
@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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More from @DrewHolden360

Dec 2, 2024
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Biden’s pardoning of his son Hunter says an enormous amount about the president’s views of justice.

But it also says a lot about the willingness of the mainstream media—the nation’s noble fact checking corps—to repeat bogus claims that suit Democrats.

Remember? ⤵️
For starters, let’s revisit the coverage of how Biden wouldn’t do what he just did.

Biden said he wouldn’t pardon his son, no way. He would trust our legal system.

The media repeated it at every turn, without a shred of incredulity.

Here’s @washingtonpost Image
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Seemingly every outlet did the same. @CNN had a couple of my favorites.

Look at the lede in on this first one.

The media’s job isn’t to simply repeat what politicians tell them. Whatever happened to “defenders of our democracy” and all that? Image
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Read 27 tweets
Nov 26, 2024
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The news that MSNBC may soon have a new owner (and that it might be a certain X power user) compelled me to finally open my “MSNBC conspiracy theories” screenshot folder and, woo boy, there are a lot.

If you’d like to revisit them, buckle up, and follow along. ⤵️
There’s nowhere better to start than with Russiagate.

Do you remember the promotion from @chrislhayes, @MalcolmNance, @maddow and others at @MSNBC that perhaps Donald Trump was a Russian agent?

I, for one, will not be forgetting. Image
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But there was plenty of other insanity from the gang at MSNBC about Russiagate.

Here are just a couple.

The first seems apropos with Trump again picking a cabinet. Image
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Read 32 tweets
Nov 20, 2024
Whatever happened to Harris and Biden’s “strongest economy ever” that the media spent so much time hyping up in the lead up to the election?

I revisit the claims, and explain why they were off the mark about the economy all along, in my latest @AmerCompass.

Quick🧵thread🧵⤵️
It can be easy, in the wake of an election, to forget just how dominant a media narrative was.

One that’s already fading from view was how “great” the economy was, and why it would benefit Harris on Election Day. americancompass.org/its-still-the-…
As a refresher, check out this headline from @axios about the data.

@YahooFinance upgraded Biden’s economic grade to an A. That captures the press sentiment at the time quite well. Image
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Read 15 tweets
Nov 18, 2024
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In recent days, the mainstream media has taken nakedly ridiculous claims about the tattoos of @PeteHegseth, Trump’s SecDef nominee, to spin up a story alleging he’s an extremist.

It’s an egregious example of politically driven “journalism.” I unpack why. ⤵️
The story really started with @AP, who ran an article claiming that two tattoos that @PeteHegseth has have ties to extremism, citing an extremely thin (and downright suspect) report.

They used that to label him a potential “insider threat” in their headline. Image
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It wasn’t until 3 paragraphs in that a reader was told what that claim rested on: a tattoo of a Latin phrase. They’d go on to mention “concerns” about a cross tattoo as well.

Really. @AP Image
Read 21 tweets
Nov 14, 2024
Would be great if Trump’s unconventional picks for his cabinet inspire the media to consider a nominee’s credentials.

They might want to look at the current HHS Secretary, Xavier Becerra, who brings to the table the medical experience of being in Congress for 12 terms. Image
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Or perhaps Obama’s former HHS Secretary, Sylvia Matthews Burwell, who had just finished her stint lobbying for Walmart. Image
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Or Donna Shalala, Clinton’s former head of HHS, whose credentials were as a university administrator and feminist. Image
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Read 4 tweets
Nov 4, 2024
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Mere days before the election the media, en masse, invented a conspiracy theory alleging Trump threatened Liz Cheney with violence.

Below you’ll see what Trump actually said, and how outlets decided to report it.

Maybe the most dishonest coverage I can recall. ⤵️
The quote comes courtesy of @PhilipWegmann, who does fantastic, real journalism.

Look at the quote. Then look at this headline from @washingtonpost.

Does one follow the other?

No. Trump is making a theoretical point about politicos who cheer for war from the sidelines. Image
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And of course it wasn’t just WaPo. Here’s @nytimes doing the same thing.

I’m sticking with the side-by-side format throughout, because I need you to understand the extent of the fabrication. Image
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Read 23 tweets

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