An explosive expose in the New York Post revealing emails from Joe Biden's son Hunter is gaining traction, despite frenzied efforts by Democrats, social platforms and the mainstream media to bury the article weeks before the presidential election. It is a hypocritical display of journalistic double standards.
When the rival New York Times used "unidentified" individuals to scorch President Trump over his taxes, Democrats defended the newspaper's right to cloak its sources in anonymity. Now those same Democrats are branding the Post bombshell "unverified" because the emails have not been authenticated by Hunter.
The Democrats reversal is all the more dubious because they colluded with Facebook and Twitter to censor the Post revelations to protect their candidate. Yet these social media oligarchs had no problem giving free reign to the Times to post its unauthenticated hatchet job on Mr. Trump.
Twitter claims it censored the article and locked the Post account because of its "hacked materials policy." This is the same social media platform that allowed hacked materials from Wikileaks to be shared by millions of users. Twitter's justification is nothing more than a pretext for censorship to shield Joe Biden.
Mainstream news outlets on television, radio and print ganged up on the Post, branding its reporting a "smear story." But the cabal has refused to investigate the scandal. They are relying on the Democrat talking point that the Post reporting is "unverifiable to justify their lack of journalistic enterprise.
The media's obfuscation stinks of the double standard it has employed to mask their naked bias. The New York Times has regularly used anonymous sources to bludgeon Mr. Trump, including on the tax allegations. By definition, that makes their reporting unverifiable. It is disingenuous to claim otherwise.
To catch up readers, the Post reported Hunter's emails were part of a cache of data recovered from a laptop that was dropped off at a repair shop in Delaware in April 2019. Hunter Biden's signature appears on the repair order. The Post published numerous emails and photos from the laptop.
As one example, there is this email from Vadym Pozhardskyi, a top executive at Burisma: "Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent (sic) some time together." The email was sent a year after Hunter assumed his lucrative position with Burisma.
Despite all the harrumphing by Democrats and their media allies, neither Hunter nor Joe Biden has denied the fact that the emails are real. Joe Biden has refused to address the scandal, telling CBS he had "no response." No other reporters dared raise the issue for fear of being ostracized by their colleagues.
After his CBS dustup, Biden was so infuriated his campaign on October 19 called a "lid for in-person events" while the former vice president prepared for the last presidential debate. He remained bunkered until the last debate and has failed to publicly address the swirling allegations.
The emails from Hunter's computer appear to debunk Joe Biden's prior claims that he had "never spoken" with his son about his overseas dealings. Hunter Biden was paid more than $83,000 a month for serving on Burisma's board during the 2014-2015 period, according to published court records.
During that same timeframe, Vice President Biden served as the "point person" on Ukraine at the direction of President Obama. From 2014-2017, the senior Biden made five trips to the Ukraine on official government business while Hunter was dealing with scandal ridden Burisma Holdings.
Biden was captured on video in March of 2016 bragging how he threatened to pull $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine if the government did not fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma. Six hours after his warning, the prosecutor was summarily dismissed.
In a desperate attempt to deflect criticism of Biden, Democrat Adam Schiff called the Post story part of a Kremlin "disinformation" campaign. His defense is laughable because Schiff used discredited Russian intel in a Hillary Clinton-sanctioned dossier to rig an impeachment of the president.
Schiff vowed he had proof the Kremlin is behind the Post story. Since his allegation, Schiff's falsehood has been laid bare by the Director of National Intelligence and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Californian has only a passing acquaintance with the truth.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee complicated Biden's problems by announcing a probe of the emails obtained by the Post. Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, says his committee is in the process of vetting the information contained in the emails.
News reports are circulating that the FBI has possession of Hunter's laptop. The agency would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation. However, the FBI plans to question Hunter's ex-associate Tony Bobulinski, who accused Joe Biden of lying about his involvement in his son's dealings.
The Wall Street Journal obtained emails and texts from Bobulinski that implicate Joe Biden in Hunter's schemes, including those with China Energy, a Shanghai-based conglomerate. The correspondence also corroborates the emails published by the New York Post.
Perhaps, the media blackout can suppress the damning emails for the remainder of the election cycle. But what happens if Joe Biden wins? The Republicans will have a trove of incriminating allegations to justify an impeachment. Democrats beware. Political payback can be brutal.
But what should worry all Americans even more is that censorship has become the norm in this country. Twitter, Facebook, Google use their muscle to ban any news or information that don't like. That is an ominous development in a country that has enshrined free speech in the Constitution.
The mainstream media long ago lost its title to unbiased reporting. News conspirators regularly censor legitimate stories that do not fit their expressed political agenda. Most Americans accept their behavior as just the way things are. But censorship endangers freedom of the press when the truth is dispensable.
Free speech and a transparent and fair press are what every democracy requires to survive. The United States is losing both, a disheartening development with the most defining election in a lifetime barely a week away.
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