Media applaud themselves over bias

Corporate media operatives, Hollywood celebrities and Washington, DC elite last week responded with cheers and raucous laughter when their own reporting bias was replayed for them.

Comedian Roy Wood, Jr. was one of the entertainers at the glamorous White House Correspondents’ Dinner last Saturday night and, among his many political jokes — Joe Biden’s advanced age included — he poked fun at media bias.

As an example, Wood, Jr. chose to highlight the stark differences between media reporting in September, when the FBI raided President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home to seize classified documents, and in January, when classified documents were also found at Joe Biden’s home.

Reporting on Trump’s classified documents included the following headlines:

“Key lawmakers win access to mishandled classified docs” – Associated Press

“Sources: Special counsel claims Trump deliberately misled his attorneys about classified documents, judge wrote” – ABC 

“Trump ‘dug himself a hole’ on classified documents and role in January 6 – Barr” – The Guardian

When classified documents were found at Biden’s home, however, media outlets published comparison outlines to show why Trump’s act was criminal while Biden’s was simply negligent.

“How they compare: Trump, Biden, Pence classified documents,” wrote the Associated Press.

At the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Wood, Jr. pointed out the discrepancy.

“I don’t know about y’all, but for me, the easiest scandal to follow was the Trump documents scandal. That was the one that was easy to follow,” Wood Jr. said. “It was simple: There’s some stuff that’s supposed to be in the White House that ain’t. In the media, you all did y’alls job. You all jumped on that story. As soon as the Trump document story broke, everybody was down at Mar-a-Lago. ‘We’re reporting live from the documents and we’re going to find them!'”

“And then we found out Joe Biden had documents too and it was like ‘oh, it’s not a big deal,'” he continued. “‘It’s not a big deal. Everybody got documents, everybody got documents, oh, look at Chinese spy balloon would you look at that’. Well done media. Happy to be here. Very happy to be here.”

The room broke out into laughs and applause, including Joe Biden himself.

Media attendees were open about their allegiance to the Biden administration throughout the dinner. The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) awarded several journalists for their work, beginning with the Washington Post’s Mark Viser. According to the WHCA, “Viser captured the spirit of Joe Biden, particularly with his stories on how the president’s brother and his Catholic faith influenced his strategic vision of the office.”

The judges cited Viser’s glowing report about Joe Biden’s brother, James, based on materials obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop. Viser made no mention of the Biden family’s corruption, which was first disclosed by emails found on the laptop. While Viser did mention in passing a business deal between the Bidens and Chinese energy corporation CEFC, he only said it “has drawn recent attention”.

In 2017 Shanghai-based State Energy HK Limited wired $3 million to a company belonging to Rob Walker, a Biden family associate. Robinson Walker, LLC, which only held a balance of $159,000 at the time of the transfer, then wired $1,065,000 to the European Energy and Infrastructure Group (EEIG) in Abu Dhabi, a company affiliated with Hunter Biden associate James Gilliar.

Within a week, Hunter Biden, Hallie Biden, James Biden and an unidentified “Biden” began receiving incremental payments over a three-month period, totaling around $1,065,000 — the amount wired from State Energy HK Limited.

State Energy HK is affiliated with Chinese Communist Party–owned energy company CEFC China Energy which paid Hunter and James Biden about $4.8 million between 2017 and 2018.