He had a good reason for not showing up. Self-incrimination.

I would not pass it off as asinine, because 'murica.

Between most republicans shamelessly voting for their team regardless of policy/character/allegations, and democrats just not voting, I wouldn't be surprised if Purdue wins reelection. Disappointed, massively - but not surprised.

Was meaning to write this when the news came up.

So what was RS' reaction to Hunter Biden's laptop scandal again when that news first broke out? That it was fake news? That the laptop wasn't real? That it was Hunter, not Joe (even though the emails quite obviously hinted that Joe was involved as well). That no one other than Fox News reported on it? And remember how (Joe) Biden never dared to deny the details suggested by the uncovered emails, other than issue some weaksauce statements that it was election mud slinging? And remember how much of the mainstream media did not bother challenging Biden regarding this issue at all? Remember how Twitter and Facebook both worked hard to censor this news?

Now federal prosecutors are working with IRS Criminal Investigation agency and the FBI to investigate on the dealings.

Had this news been widely reported by the mainstream prior to the election (as it should have), and had social media not actively engaged in censoring the news, how many voters would have found it unacceptable to vote for Biden? and how many of those would have voted for Trump instead?

As I have said before, the mainstream US media, along with FB and Twitter, have completely flushed their reputation and credibility down the toilet as a result of this election.

At least the chickens have come home to roost...

If those people found the scandal enough of a reason not to vote Biden, why would they not have found the multiple scandals trump is a part in a dealbreaker?

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.cnn....ion/index.html
A news report from CNN today explicitly stating joe Biden isn’t implicated anyways.

4Head

HILLARY'S EMAILS!!!!!

You may recall that Google searches for “change my vote” have spiked a little while after NY Post published the Hunter Biden scandal.

https://nypost.com/2020/10/26/early-...biden-exposes/

I am not familiar with this Chattanooga Free Press, so I'll take their story with a grain of salt:

https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/...voters/536784/

To dismiss the idea that some Biden voters would have voted for Trump had the media reported on the Hunter Biden issue... I don't think that'd be right.

The Hunter Biden emails had unmistakably referred to a certain "Big Guy". Based on conventional wisdom, who might most likely be that "Big Guy"?

Now, I fully acknowledge that it would probably be too difficult to pin that "Big Guy" label to Joe Biden in a legal setting. Since the evidence isn't strong enough (to be presented in court), there'd be no point for law enforcement to pursue it.

IMO, between the issue of winning the election, and how media bias had operated during the election, I am honestly more disappointed about how far the media have fallen and casted its ethics aside.

Your guy lost, he's a loser. His coup attempt will fail

Let's move on, unless it's to laugh at the loser

If you think the downfall of the Fourth Estate is a good thing for the civilized world, then sure. Just move right along as if nothing has ever happened.

I don’t get your argument, Trump has almost irreversibly damaged the ability of the fourth estate to report on anything, everybody in the USA thinks everything is a lie now and people in general have more trouble discerning the facts than ever before due to all his alternate reality posturing... so yah it’s a good thing he’s gone. He was the downfall of the fourth estate.

More than happy to move on from that ish

Trump attempted to bring down the Fourth Estate. Now we can try rebuilding it again, but for some reason you want him to keep destroying it?

Let's start with this because it is the easier question to answer.

Trump is absolutely adversarial to much of the media that calls him out on his lies. He and the Trump-supporting channels, with the biggest one being Fox, undoubtedly pushed a lot of false narrative, and people were stupid enough to believed it. If that is what you call "bringing down the Fourth Estate", then sure -- Trump has been constantly attempting to bring down the Fourth Estate.

What I'd call "bringing down the Fourth Estate" is -- the once reputable news channels, in their attempt to fight back against Trump and his false narrative, have decided that it is OK to cast their media ethics aside, and employed similarly dirty tactics as Trump and his supporting media. When it comes to news that would have been favourable to Trump, it gets reported without credit being given back to Trump. Or in Hunter Biden's case, the absolute worst method was adopted -- it simply wasn't being reported; or when it is reported, it gets censored (by Twitter and FB using some lamea$$ excuse), or its legitimacy is questioned. When it comes to other issues, they find ways to sneak in a line every now and then to assign blame to Trump, even at times when Trump shouldn't really be held responsible for that. I remember reading a Time article on COVID vaccines a month or two earlier, and the author kept sneaking in jabs on Trump that were irrelevant to the topic he was supposed to report on. It was disgusting.

When interviews are held with Trump (as was the case in the presidential election debates / interviews, pointed questions were directed at him, but only softballs were lobbed to Biden, even when he should at least be queried hard on numerous issues. Throughout the campaign, Biden basically had no concrete plan on any policy-related issue, except that his central theme was, "hey, I am not Trump." and mainstream media was OK with that.

That is what I'd call "bringing down the Fourth Estate". It is the Fourth Estate throwing away its own integrity because it wanted to take Trump down so badly. The thing that they should have done is to just keep calling out on Trump's lies with facts. But they decided that wasn't enough. That is what I am most disappointed about, and that is how it destroyed its own reputation. It is far more damaging than either candidate winning the presidency.

I don't believe in fighting lies with lies. If somebody lies, you call him out and that would make him look stupid. And if people choose to be stupid, you can't fix or change that. The only thing you can do is to keep presenting the truth and hope that would sink in at some point. (Sometimes / a lot of times, it doesn't.) When Trump first came into the presidency, the media kept calling him out (on his lies). They were doing their jobs, and it was great. Trump literally looked stupid because he kept getting called out for lying.

But then I dunno what happened. Somewhere along the line, the media has decided that just calling Trump out wasn't enough. And then it started selectively presenting the truth itself. To fight the monster that it was trying to fight, the media has become a similar monster on its own.

I agree that the reputation of the Fourth Estate in the US is now thoroughly damaged, and I am genuinely sad about that. How do you even move on from here because trust and reputations aren't something you can rebuild or repair overnight.

I think you’re being selective. Hunter Biden’s emails weren’t widely being reported because they couldn’t corroborate the facts of the story.

The second he was getting investigated for this tax issue, it was the top story on CNN and every other supposedly biased network. Because it was a verifiable story.

What do you want? Them to take a chance on stuff that’s most likely a hoax so it seems more fair?

The thing about the the emails is that the story behind them is seems so ludicrous, someone might think the story has to be real, because nobody could make something up so over the top. Like a character assassination plot written by an 8th grader.

But if you step back and just look at Trump and everyone around him... Giuliani with his melting hair, wiping snot on his face, farting all over the place... They really are ludicrous. They are cartoon villains. Even worse in some cases. They are so over the top, they practically killed political satire. How can you be farcical about something that is already a farce?

Anyway, I'm sure the people whose job it is to vet these stories looked into it a lot more than we did, and found it to be totally bogus. It's easy enough for us to see, it must have just made these people laugh.

Maybe the FBI will find out that it's all true. Don't get your hopes up on that.

Also we're still talking about the hunter biden emails?

I'd have to disagree with your suggestion that mainstream media wasn't widely reporting on the Hunter Biden emails because they couldn't corroborate the facts. Even by the time when Bobulinski came out to speak against Hunter, coverage from mainstream media was still minimal. WSJ was basically the only mainstream media that sort of brought up the question regarding Hunter long after the story has surfaced, and even then, the issue was presented as multiple opinion pieces spread over a few days, merely questioning the Biden camp's near silence on the issue.

The current near 180° flip in attitude from the media is a bit strange to me. FBI has previously acknowledged seizing the laptop and hard drive, but at the time, mainstream media didn't really report on the issue. There can be any number of theories on why their attitude on this issue has changed drastically, and I have no interest in guessing what their motives might be. All I know is, after playing the bad cop for the better part of a year, they are acting like the good cop again.

If you thought the Hunter Biden laptop / emails story was a hoax, I'm not sure what I can tell you. I will mention though that the media doesn't really have much of a problem on reporting any tiny tidbit of news at the earliest opportunity that would paint Trump under a bad light. Remember Stormy Daniels and how fast that news came out?

US Supreme Court rejects Trump's lawsuit to overturn Biden's election victory. I'm shocked that his top lawyer Rudy Giuliani failed.

It's like we get to watch trump lose over and over again I love it KEKW

So that's 1 in 57 lawsuits to Trump. So much losing. It's fantastic, literally 2020's biggest loser.

Even better is how the big baby is pouting about it.

What a piece of shit sorry excuse for a human being. Americans better learn from this.

Obama had more whistleblower's prosecuted under the espionage act than all previous presidents in history combined.
Adding to that his use of Intel agencies to spy on journalists.
His administration brought the US rank in the world press freedom index from 20th place to 49th.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index
Doubtful Biden will be "rebuilding" the fourth estate. likely to see more spying, subpoenas, and prosecutions. Just like when he was vice president.

*cough *cough *Russia *cough

Damn too bad trump didn't win then, things would be so much better

And so where are the heaps of praise and congratulations for 'your guy'? The in depth discussion on all the improved policy to come? Where is the love?
not a post in the Biden thread for two weeks now.
Safe to assume what sells and what doesn't around here.

"our guy" isn't the current sitting president.
once he is then you'll see some posts in that thread.
for now we're still making fun of "your guy".

Nobody said 'our guy' was the answer, most believe he is just better or 'anyone but your guy' ... honestly, he's just a place holder.

And there it is. Nothing but ridicule to offer.