If key Biden “corruption” and impeachment witness Alexander Smirnov spectacularly implodes and nobody in the Fox audience hears how big a deal that is, does it really make an impact? I’m only half joking.
From ignoring the fact that their supposedly extremely credible FBI informer of Biden corruption was arrested for lying and has been revealed as a Russian asset to spinning the news as, basically Biden’s fault, Fox “News” has failed to admit anything close to an appropriate apology.
Media Matters had a good roundup on Tuesday of Fox’s coverage of the Feb. 14 arrest of informant Alexander Smirnov (he was rearrested today):
Fox provided a mere 31 minutes of coverage of Smirnov’s indictment from Thursday [Feb. 15] through Monday. That total is noticeably scant given how loudly the network previously trumpeted the informant’s allegations; Fox mentioned “Biden in the context of ‘bribe’ or ‘bribery’ more than 2,600 times” in the year before his arrest, The Washington Post’s Philip Bump reported.
Several shows that typically provide robust coverage of the Hunter Biden probe ignored it; Fox & Friends provided only a single headline read, while The Ingraham Angle did not address the story at all (the latter featured interviews with a “body-language expert” as well as purported comedian Jimmy Failla on Thursday).
Sean Hannity spun it as FBI negligence for not looking into the matter before. Brian Kilmeade acknowledged Smirnov’s story had been found false, said he had nothing to do with Republicans (never mind that they and their Fox partners relentlessly hyped the story), then moved on to the supposed bombshell deposition of Tony Bobulinski.
But Jesse Watters probably took the cake. He suggested Smirnov was arrested because of some deep state plot. “Everyone who blows the whistle on the Biden syndicate or is connected to it has been arrested. What does that tell you?” he "asked." “Informants, business partners, whistleblowers, they’re all paying a price but the Biden family has never paid a price. You got to hand it to the big guy. He’s getting away with it.”
I started working on this post on Wednesday. But before I had the chance to finish it, The Daily Show’s Desi Lydic said it better than I could – and funnier, too. Plus, she hilariously covered a bit of Trump’s town hall with Laura Ingraham. Then Jordan Klepper discussed how Fox portrays President Biden as both doddering and a "diabolical scheme machine with the tyrannical heart of a 50-foot Joseph Stalin."
Watch it below, from the February 21, 2024 The Daily Show.
