Dear Editor:
I respectfully disagree with Rabbi Schonfeld’s contention that many of the items on his list in last week’s column have lacked, or deserve, increased media attention.
For starters, the news divisions of both Fox News and The Wall Street Journal reviewed the emails and documents associated with Hunter Biden’s business dealings (after other news organizations were not granted access to them) and have found no evidence that Joe Biden was involved. And the source of his “apparent wealth” (he owns a nice house in Delaware?) is hardly a mystery as he has actually released his tax returns. Even if you consider the shady business dealings of a candidate’s child to be an important election issue, it’s hard to compete with the Trump children, who, to cite just one example, were part of a deal in Azerbaijan that appears to have been a money laundering scheme for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (as reported by The New Yorker).
As for Benghazi, it was heavily covered by the media and was subject to years of congressional hearings, which failed to turn up any cover-up or wrongdoing. Contrast that to the Russia “hoax,” where to cite just one example, a recent bipartisan Senate report found, among other things, that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort (jailed due to the Mueller investigation), passed information and data to a Russian intelligence asset.
For the IRS controversy, a 2017 report by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General found that the IRS used both conservative and liberal keywords to choose targets for further scrutiny. It would also seem unlikely that a President would have knowledge of the IRS’s day-to-day actions, yet Rabbi Schonfeld flatly states that President Obama lied about his knowledge. I searched for any proof of this and was unable to find any.
Regarding the Clinton Foundation, many of the allegations related to it come from the book Clinton Cash by Peter Schweitzer. And for the liberal media ignoring it, The New York Times and Washington Post had an agreement with Schweitzer to use his material, and The Times prominently featured his work, in addition to their own reporting on the matter. I just hope that anyone outraged by the Foundation’s dealings during Hillary’s tenure as Secretary of State (which was at best terrible judgment), is similarly upset at the documented pay-for-play going on at the Trump Washington Hotel and Mar-a-Lago, which raised its membership fee after Trump’s victory.
Far from being swept under the rug, there was hardly a story covered as thoroughly in the run-up to the 2016 election as Hillary’s emails. And after multiple reports of the Trump administration’s lax attitude towards information security have been met with a collective yawn, you have to wonder if those expressing outrage at Hillary were acting in good faith.
Lastly, while on one hand I agree that there is some hypocrisy in the coverage of the Biden assault accusation (which has been reported on and has many holes), on the other hand it is somewhat understandable when his opponent has over 20 accusers (many receiving even less press than Biden’s), and the President was caught on tape bragging about such behavior.
Regards,
Yitzchok R.
Rabbi Schonfeld responds:
Dear Yitzchok:
Thank you for your cogent letter regarding my recent article on media bias. You document that in all the cases I cited, there was no evidence to show that the media was biased in not reporting on Democratic potential scandals.
In a way, you underscore my point. While there was scant attention paid to these issues, there was no intense investigative media coverage. For example, with the IRS, Lois Lerner pleaded the Fifth and disappeared. Can you imagine had this been under a Republican administration the media frenzy this would have created until they got down to the bottom of the issue and to connect the dots to the president?
With Benghazi, do you recall Hillary Clinton declaring during the Republican-led hearing, regarding the murder of the staff people at the US Embassy in Libya, “What difference does it make now?” Insert a Republican administration and imagine for yourself the media reaction. Yes, hearings were held, but the point is all these hearings were left to die on the vine by the press so they had no legs.
And so it has been with all the issues.
Be well, and thank you for your interest.
Rabbi Schonfeld
Dear Editor:
Election Day has come and gone. This reminds me of “The Outer Limits,” a 1960s television show. With the end of round-the-clock commercials by politicians, political parties, political action groups, and pay-for-play special interest groups, we now return control of your television back to you until the next election cycle. No more candidates’ campaign mailings clogging our mailboxes and weighing down are hardworking postal employees. Finally, some peace and quiet!
Now if only all the winning and losing candidates would pick up all the thousands of campaign signs that litter our roads and highways to help clean up our environment. All can use leftover campaign funds to hire either the Boy Scouts or the Girl Scouts to collect this litter. They could pay our young people a nominal fee, which I’m sure would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner