"I have come to think of this as the hidden, unspoken ideology of our media and political elites. They behave, in word and in deed, as though what is most important is the protection and maintenance of the status hierarchy."

~ Dave Karpf

#Trump #Hegseth #Patel #Biden #pardon #media
/2

https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/uncouth

"Hunter Biden’s pardon is front page news — not because anyone cares about Hunter Biden at all, but because it is the type of Presidential misbehavior that our elite media knows how to object to.

Kash Patel’s intent to turn the FBI against his 'enemies list' is a lesser news story, right up until the moment he throws those enemies in prison."

#Trump #Patel #Biden #pardon #media
/3

"The Hunter Biden Pardon Discourse is a perfect distillation of our dominant political asymmetry. ...

Hundreds upon hundreds of columns in the mainstream media are being written about Biden and the pardon. Most of them seem critical.1 Even supposedly nonpartisan analysts took the Hunter Biden pardon and extrapolated it to the moon as a litmus test for the Democratic party writ large."

~ Jonathan V. Last

#Trump #Biden #Patel #pardon #media
/4

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/then-now-and-forever-the-people-are

"Meanwhile, the actual incoming president of the United States has signaled that he’s going to fire the director of the FBI for [reasons] and replace him with a psychopath. And everyone just kind of shrugs."

#Trump #Patel #Biden #pardon #media
/5

"For years, the Press has played this same old broken record. They amplify Trump’s lies and normalize his criminal dealings, while launching vicious criticisms of Biden every single chance they get. …

Give me a break. The selective and fake outrage by corporate media is one of the biggest reasons we are in this mess in the first place."

~ Scott Dworkin

#Trump #Biden #pardon #media
/6

https://www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/press-goes-hysterical-over-bidens

"Biden is supposed to toe some imaginary line drawn by liberal op-ed writers and frightened congress-critters and pearl-clutching newspaper editors, even as Trump promises to pardon insurrectionists convicted of attacking Capitol police, damaging the nation’s Capitol, and attempting to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election."

#Trump #Biden #pardon #media
/7

https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/im-sick-and-tired-of-the-medias-double

"As one commentator put it in the 2024 presidential race, Donald Trump was held to a kindergartener standard while Kamala Harris was held to a presidential standard. As resisters, we will now reject that bullshit."

~ Malcolm Nance

#Trump #Biden #pardon #media
/8

https://malcolmnance.substack.com/p/five-steps-to-resist-the-coming-tyranny

Since the election, there's been considerable discussion of withdrawing from political engagement, protecting oneself and one's space.

There are different ways to do that. When Musk took over Twitter, I left Twitter that very day: disengagement. Refusing to give any energy to a loathsome, lethally dangerous man….

I have for some time now disengaged from corporate media, reading only select articles and refusing to subscribe to most outlets.

#Trump #Biden #pardon #media
/9

Disengaging: I refuse to be lectured to by New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, etc. Those outlets have forfeited their right to lecture to me, to pretend that their elitist, privileged standards represent "ethics" or "morality" or "propriety" or "civility."

Jonathan Haidt or Nate Silver can both-sides "woke Democrats" and fascist Republicans till the cows come home. I refuse to listen. I've disengaged.

#Trump #Biden #pardon #media
/10

I refuse to engage with pretend liberals who troll social media feeds like mine and try to draw me into insincere discussions about how the Democrats — never the Republicans — need to "listen," to "learn." These are beat-up sessions, jubilation sessions for people who are either overtly or secretly very happy that Trump prevailed in the election, and want to use their window of opportunity now to attack, savage, tear fragile solidarity of resisters apart.

#Trump #Biden #pardon #media
/11

I could not be more disengaged from the absurd blatherings of corporate media about how Biden has now failed to exhibit a commitment to law and order, when Trump: my God, Trump. And all that he and his party are setting in place for us.

And the media expect me to concern myself with Biden's pardon of his son?

What hellacious moral vacuum do those soulless, empty folks live in as they pretend to set ethical standards for the rest of us?

#Trump #Biden #pardon #media
/12

"Ron Filipkowski of MeidasTouch notes that Biden’s pardon came after Trump’s announcement that he wants to place conspiracy theorist Kash Patel at the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Filipkowski studies right-wing media and points out that Patel’s many appearances there suggest he is obsessed with Hunter Biden…."

~ Heather Cox Richardson

#Trump #Biden #Patel #pardon #media
/13

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-2-2024

"And yet, much of American media today has been consumed not with the story that Trump has appointed a deeply problematic candidate to run what could be considered the nation’s most important department, overseeing about 3 million personnel and managing a budget of more than $800 billion, or with the reality that Biden’s distrust of our legal system under Trump is a profound warning for all of us."

#Trump #Biden #Hegseth #Patel #pardon #media
/14

"Instead, they have focused on President Biden’s pardon of his son, many of them condemning what they say is Biden’s rejection of the rule of law.

Some have suggested that Biden’s pardoning his son will now give Trump license to pardon anyone he wants, apparently forgetting that in his first term, Trump pardoned his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner,"

#Trump #Biden #Hegseth #Patel #pardon #media
/15

"who pleaded guilty to federal charges of tax evasion, campaign finance offenses, and witness tampering and whom Trump has now tapped to become the U.S. ambassador to France. …

Trump also pardoned for various crimes men who were associated with the ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian operatives working to elect Trump."

#Trump #Biden #Hegseth #Patel #pardon #media
/16

"In today’s news coverage, the exercise of the presidential pardon—which traditionally gets very little attention—has entirely outweighed the dangerous nominations of an incoming president, which will have profound influence on the American people."

#Trump #Biden #Hegseth #Patel #pardon #media
/17

"This imbalance reflects a longstanding and classic power dynamic in which Republicans set the terms of public debate, excusing their own objectionable behavior while constantly attacking Democrats in a fiery display that attracts media attention but distorts reality."

The media have long since made it clear that law and order is expected of the Democrats, but for the Republicans? Meh.

And they expect us to keep listening?

#Trump #Biden #Hegseth #Patel #pardon #media
/18

"Nobody defines [George H.W. Bush's] presidency, or his political character, by the fact that he pardoned his son. Hell, it wasn't even defined by the fact that Poppy pardoned everyone except Shoeless Joe Jackson on his way out the door so as to obscure forever his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal."

(5 December: N.B. /21 below — Esquire has retracted Pierce's claim that Bush pardoned his son.)

#Trump #Biden #GeorgeHWBush #GeorgeBush #pardon #media
/19

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a63082689/neil-bush-george-hw-bush-presidential-pardon/