The Biden administration is demanding Fox News retract stories involving allegations of Biden family corruption.
White House spokesman Ian Sams sent a letter to Fox News executives alleging the news network has promoted a "false, discredited" allegation of bribery involving President Joe Biden.
Sams is referring to allegations that Alexander Smirnov brought to the FBI years ago — part of a controversial FD-1023 document — claiming Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, $5 million each in 2015 and/or 2016. Last month, special counsel David Weiss secured an indictment against Smirnov, a former FBI confidential human source, for allegedly lying about those claims.
On the simple basis that Weiss has lodged the allegations against Smirnov, Sams complained that Fox News "has taken no steps to retract, correct, or update its reporting."
He wrote:
We feel strongly that all Fox News Digital articles on this topic should at a minimum beupdated with editor’s notes informing readers that the source of this allegation has been federallyindicted for making it up. We also feel strongly that Fox News Channel television personalitieslike Hannity and Watters, among others, should inform their viewers on air that they have beensharing a discredited allegation from a source who has been federally indicted for making it up.
There are numerous problems with Sams' claims.
First, in all of the stories that Sams cited, Fox News never reported Smirnov's allegations as substantiated fact. This is an important distinction. Fox News reports on the allegations as exactly that: unproven claims.
Second, Sams purportedly does exactly what he claims Fox News is guilty of doing.
Sams presumes the allegations against Smirnov are true, and thus, he assumes Smirnov's guilt, contrary to the defendant's presumption of innocence. Sams does this by asserting as a fact that the allegations Smirnov brought to the FBI about the Bidens are "false." But Smirnov has not yet seen a jury of his peers, and prosecutors have not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Smirnov lied.
Thus, both Smirnov's claims are allegations and Weiss' claims are allegations — and reporting on mere allegations is not a journalistic transgression.
For its part, Fox News has no plans to comply with Sams' demands, sources told CNN.
In a formal statement, Fox News acknowledged its coverage of Smirnov's allegations and his run-in with Weiss, and the network vowed to continue reporting on it.
"Fox News Media has reported on all key developments since the announcement that Alexander Smirnov was charged with lying to the FBI, featuring the story prominently," the statement said. "We will continue to report on developments in all aspects of the ongoing investigations, hearings, and trials."
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White House spokesman Ian Sams became defensive on Thursday when CNN anchor Phil Mattingly confronted him over the changing narrative about President Joe Biden's alleged involvement in Hunter Biden's business schemes.
For years, President Biden said that he never discussed business with his son. But that narrative began to change earlier this year after Devon Archer, one of Hunter's longtime business associates, testified to Congress that Biden had conversed with his son's business associates on numerous occasions.
On Wednesday, the goalposts moved farther when Hunter Biden gave an exceptionally specific defense of his father.
"Let me state as clearly as I can: my father was not financially involved in my business," the first son said on Capitol Hill while defying a congressional subpoena.
On "CNN This Morning," Mattingly highlighted the "evolution" of the narrative and pressed Sams about the specificity of the Hunter's statement.
"Was that an intentional point of clarity, do you think?" Mattingly asked.
Sams, however, became immediately defensive.
"I actually dispute the whole premise of that question," he said.
Sams accused Mattingly of using "one of Jim Jordan's favorite little shiny objects— to try to take a semantic thing and make an argument" against the president.
But Mattingly immediately shut down the accusation.
"With respect, I'm not siding with Jim Jordan here. I was in some of the White House press briefings where it was said explicitly the president did not talk to his son about business dealing. That is very clearly not the case and I think the statement from the White House has changed," the CNN anchor responded. "I'm not saying this is like an impeachable offense or some grand indictment, but it is a fact that the president said one thing that ended up being not true."
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Sams responded by accusing Mattingly of being dishonest.
"I dispute that that's true. That is not true. The truth is that he wasn't in business with his son," Sams said.
"Again, I'm not saying that he was in business with his son," Mattingly fired back.
The last part of the exchange is telling. Mattingly never accused Biden of being involved in Hunter's business schemes; he was simply questioning the White House's changing narrative. Yet Sams twisted himself into a knot — ultimately not addressing the question — to defend President Biden from allegations that Mattingly never raised.
Sams' response thus raises the question: if there is nothing to read into Hunter Biden's specific defense of his father, why dodge Mattingly's question?
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