New York TimesWeekly conversation between columnists Bret and Gail Stephens. The conversation began on Monday with a lighthearted discussion about light. It then moved on to Russia’s invasion in Ukraine. This was a very uncomfortable topic for anyone who works at the newspaper. Times— The suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop story by many of the news and social media outlets, as well as the periodicals they work for.
Stephens brought up the subject and Collins responded in a strange way.
Bret:You can also read: Did you read The Times’s account of the government’s investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax and foreign-business affairs? Here, the news is less about Hunter but more about the fact that the emails found on his laptop are his. This was despite Twitter’s best efforts to conceal or not pay enough attention to this fact at the time of the 2020 elections.
Gail: I’m so glad our colleagues are still doing strong reporting on this story — Hunter Biden’s scummy business dealings shouldn’t be swept under the rug any more than anyone else’s.
It shouldn’t all be ignored. New York TimesThis has been done since October 2020.
Bret:And those canvas paintings that he attempted to sell at $500,000 per piece in transparent sales. There was nothing fishy about it.
Gail: That said, I have to admit I’ve never found Hunter’s behavior criminal — just very, very depressing. Fragile son in a family buffeted by tragedy grows up to have a drug problem and makes a lot of money by working for companies that presumably like to have a famous American politician’s relative to trot around.
Gail Collins is not the only one who finds Hunter Biden’s behaviour merely depressing. She was also obsessed with Mitt Romney locking his dog in the hutch on his roof.
Bret: The D.O.J.’s investigation will tell.
Gail: Some of Hunter’s behavior was obviously unseemly in the extreme. Any new evidence needs to be carefully examined to see if Hunter’s behavior ever went past that into actual criminality — did he claim, for instance, that he could deliver favors from the government because he was Joe Biden’s son?
So far, I haven’t seen it, but whenever Hunter’s name comes up, I do find myself holding my breath.
Gail might not wish to read Miranda Devine’s “Laptop From Hell” if she isn’t willing to be choking from the pressure of holding her breath.
Bret: The book to read on this subject is “The Bidens” by Politico’s Ben Schreckinger. It’s no right-wing hit job, which makes its description of Hunter’s business dealings that much more damning. The subtle media efforts to hide Hunter’s email story before the election, as a Russian disinformation effort was what bothered and really disturbed me. If someone had discovered that, say, Ivanka Trump had left a laptop at a repair shop stuffed with emails about 10 percent being held “for the big guy”— to use a reference that appears to be to Joe Biden, which comes from one of the emails found on Hunter’s computer — would the story have been treated with kid gloves?
Bret: If you are bothered by the media’s “subtle effort to hide the email story just before the election”, then you might consider asking your friends. TimesIt is not clear to editors and coworkers why the editor buried it. You and Gail pretend that it was other media outlets who did the burial, but you don’t admit that your periodical was involved in that detail.
Gail:Ivanka is much neater than Ivanka. Your mentioning her does remind me that it’s never been clear to me exactly how much, if any, of the campaign donations Trump’s been piling up are going to his kids’ activities.
Although I don’t want to minimize Hunter’s story, in the scheme of things his crimes will be a sidebar to the Biden saga. You can remind me that I stated it if the entire family is indicted.
We can remind you, your employer, that the story was buried in an act flagrant election interference.
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