Some people say that democracy dies in darkness.
But it can die in the full light of day too.
Especially if people are prevented from seeing what’s in front of them.
This week two bombshell events happened.
On the Republican side the candidate still most favored by the party’s base to be its nominee for the Presidency lost a civil case against writer E Jean Carroll.
A New York jury found that Donald Trump had sexually abused and defamed the woman and ordered him to pay $5 million damages.
You may have heard about this.
After all, the story was splashed on the front page of The Post the next day.
It also led the news around the world.
Although Trump denies the charges it will be up to American voters to decide what they think about this.
Is this the sort of thing they´ve already factored in with Donald Trump?
Or will they deem it yet another mark against him in a long list that anyone – of any political stripe – could now compile?
It’s up to the American public.
But the other political bombshell of the week had a different landing.
I listened to Wednesday morning´s report of the House Oversight Committee on the Biden family´s business dealings with amazement.
It has been perfectly clear for some time that while Joe Biden was Vice President his son Hunter and brother James enriched themselves through various pay-to-play schemes.
But the House Committee´s findings revealed far worse than even those familiar with the story had expected.
The range of foreign donors included a corrupt Romanian businessman who gave the Biden family over $1 million.
But more scandalous was the revelation that as many as nine members of the Biden family were benefiting from the money that came from this influence-peddling scheme.
New revelations included the claim that even one of Joe Biden´s grandchildren had received six-figure wire-transfers from a foreign national.
As readers of this paper know, this all suggests a very serious form of political corruption.
It is a story that has been suppressed for almost three years and which much of the rest of the media have only recently, and reluctantly, started to admit is true.
If they started late, they also stopped early.
Because after the press conference on Wednesday you might have expected some of the Democrat media to at least acknowledge something awkward had taken place.
But no.
Although the story was splashed on the front page of this paper, most of the rest of the media seemed intent on continuing to cover over the story of the Biden family´s business dealings.
But what did papers like the New York Times and Washington Post instead go big on?
Well both decided to splash their front pages yesterday with photos and stories about crazy Congressman George Santos.
Specifically the fact that the serial fibber now faces a federal indictment.
And while it is obviously a story, here is some news for the NYT and Washington Post.
George Santos is not running for President.
In no universe is it remotely likely that he will even retain any position of power.
He will be lucky to keep the shirt on his back after the end of this process.
But of course the Democrat media love Santos.
Because they can suggest that somehow the Congressman is not an embarrassment to the GOP, but in fact some kind of poster-boy of the party.
They love the opportunity to make it so.
Yet still it isn´t.
Santos may be a figure of fun but he is someone of almost zero national political significance.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, has made it clear that he would like to once again run – or at least stumble – for the office of President next year.
Do sections of the media believe that they can keep covering for him?
It seems so.
Yesterday the New York Times buried a story deep in its paper about the Biden family corruption allegations.
And how did they headline it?
“House Republican Report Finds No Evidence of Wrongdoing by President Biden.”
In other words, they completely misrepresented (or what used to be called “lied about”) the facts.
MSNBC and other left-wing media followed suit.
And here is the thing.
When this country next goes to the polls the public should know the pros and cons of every candidate.
If Donald Trump ends up as the Republican candidate there will be no shortage of opinions and information about him.
But the same will not be able to be said about Joe Biden.
Because half of the country are being kept in deliberate darkness.
By a media class that believes its job is not to report on candidates but to cover-up for certain of them.
It´s a disservice to the name of journalism.
More importantly it´s a disservice to the American people – who deserve to be more than half-informed when they vote.
Vilified for not rushing to judgment
Mayor Eric Adams has been taking flak from his left for being level-headed about the death of Jordan Neely on the subway last week.
One left-wing media outlet condemned the Mayor again this week for not saying that Neely was “killed.”
You have to wonder what these people want.
Since the incident on the F train, Adams has been one of the few politicians in this city who has been measured and judicious in his responses to the tragedy.
In his speech on Wednesday he spoke with dignity and gracefulness about Neely.
He made a point of saying that despite being a homeless drug-addict with dozens of arrests and assaults to his name, Neely´s “life mattered.”
But Adams is holding his counsel ahead of any legal cases to come.
But what would the Mayor´s critics like?
Would they like him to join the fire-starter politicians I wrote about here last week?
Would they like him to join the crowds who have gone out nightly in this city threatening to burn our city down?
We are used to politicians being incendiary.
When someone does the opposite and tries to stop people literally starting fires we should not condemn them, but thank them.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
