AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
In a stunning reversal from their prior blackout of the story, CBS News released an exclusive interview this week with an IRS whistleblower who is alleging that the Department of Justice intentionally stymied an investigation into potential tax law violations by Hunter Biden. The moment recalls memories of another famous incident of CBS suddenly turning on a Democrat president, when anchor Walter Cronkite broke with Lyndon B. Johnson’s stance on the Vietnam War, an incident that reportedly caused Johnson to remark, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost America.”
That watershed moment came on February 27, 1968, in the midst of the Tet Offensive. As American troops saw heavy casualties, Cronkite broke with the by then well-established media position of toeing the Democrat line and offered a devastating analysis of the U.S. position in Vietnam.
“It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate,” Cronkite told his millions of viewers. “To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past.”
Such comments may seem mild by today’s standards of bombastic and sensational media coverage, but they were shocking for a 1960s audience that was used to at least the veneer of objectivity.
For Johnson, it was a watershed moment. One by one, other media outlets also began breaking with the White House and criticizing the war. After Johnson “lost Cronkite,” he made a major rhetorical shift in his portrayal of the war effort, beginning to talk about moving toward “peace” rather than “victory.”
Just a few weeks after Cronkite’s famous dissection of the war, Johnson announced he would not seek re-election amid quickly evaporating public support. Media observers ever since have credited Cronkite with playing a large role in forcing Johnson out of the race.
Now, the country could be witnessing a similar watershed moment as CBS signals its willingness to treat the Biden family’s corruption with the scrutiny it deserves.
In the CBS report, 14-year IRS veteran Gary Shapley, who supervised the probe into the president’s son, said he felt duty-bound to sound the alarm about federal law enforcement’s mishandling of the investigation.
“There were multiple steps that were slow-walked — were just completely not done — at the direction of the Department of Justice,” Shapley said. “When I took control of this particular investigation, I immediately saw deviations from the normal process. It was way outside the norm of what I’ve experienced in the past.”
More details of the story could be uncovered soon as Shapley is scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday. Although the testimony will not be open to the public, it could provide more evidence to aid in House Republicans’ ongoing investigation of the Biden family’s shady business dealings.
CBS’s coverage of the story signals the liberal media’s willful ignorance of the president’s corruption scandals could be coming to an end. That’s bad news for Biden, who has relied on the silence of the media to hide the growing mound of evidence pointing to his involvement in Hunter’s schemes.
After then-candidate Biden angrily claimed in 2019 that he had “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” a series of revelations showed Hunter’s top staffers made more than 100 visits to the Obama White House to meet with the elder Biden.
As the narrative that he “never” spoke with his son about business began to implode, Joe Biden went on CNN last October in a feeble attempt to distract from the damning truths coming to light in spite of the White House’s attempted cover-up. In an interview with Jake Tapper that many slammed as “soft” and “weak,” the CNN host asked Biden how he responded “politically and personally” to the investigation into his son, then allowed the president to drone on about how “proud” he was of Hunter for “overcoming” his drug addiction.
Tapper failed to ask any follow-up questions, even though the Washington Post had reported just days earlier that federal agents alleged they had “sufficient evidence” to charge Hunter with tax and gun crimes.
But Biden’s personal baggage may now be more than even his media allies can ignore. CBS’s reversal could be the first sign that corporate newsrooms – and many in the Deep State who helped shield the Bidens from scrutiny – are getting nervous about potentially being implicated in the deepening scandal.
The media may also be concluding that the momentum building against Biden – evidenced in his increasingly dour poll numbers – will be too much to overcome in his bid for a second term. Rather than continuing to try and prop up the floundering president, the media might fully embrace the story in an attempt to drive Biden out of the race and replace him with someone who stands a better chance of winning in 2024.
Biden, for his part, may, like Johnson, come to the conclusion that if he’s lost CBS, he has indeed lost America.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio.
If CBS has suddenly decided to change direction on finally reporting an important and consequential story, it’s not because they’ve somehow recovered their journalistic integrity. It’s because they’ve begun to realize that Biden is unelectable and now must do whatever is necessary to get him out of the race.
LBJ is one of the main reasons that America is what it is today. He changed immigration laws and turned America into the welfare state that it is today. Some people like to claim immigration laws were racist but they were designed to keep a certain caliber of people immigrating to the US and not have people that were just going to be a burden on society immigrate by the millions, as we are seeing today. Believe what you want about Kennedy but he was a patriotic American veteran and democrats back then were nothing like democrats today. Those democrats are rolling over in their graves. LBJ kicked off the decline of America and he was the first real puppet of the “puppet masters” of the NWO.
LBJ never wanted victory. If he did, we would have bombed them into oblivion and taken our victory lap. All he did was continue feeding US soldiers to the commies to keep the war alive. It wasn’t peace; it was absolute failure!
The Biden’s are lifelong criminals, and liars. I’ve never liked, nor trusted that corrupt traitor.
Years later, at least one former, high ranking, North Vietnamese official, stated that if America had kept up the bombing for a few more weeks, they likely would have surrendered. Since WWII, America has never wanted to win a war…not because our military isn’t capable…but because our politicians are cowards.
To suggest that CBS covering the IRS whistleblower is a shift in most of leftwing media is what I would call “Jumping the Gun”. It seems that we always look for signs of change in the Left but it never happens. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is one article and the person writing this is no Walter Cronkite. There is no watershed moment here.
… by now, America’s shortcut the mainstream media. We dig for our news. CBS no longer merits credibility sufficient to effect our beliefs, much less our behavior. What CBS reports on, what it doesn’t, no longer matters –
E.W. Scripps said the following about newspapers in 1878: “A newspaper must at all times antagonize the selfish interests of that very class which furnishes the larger part of a newspaper’s income… The press in this country is dominated by the wealthy few…that it cannot be depended upon to give the great mass of the people that correct information concerning political, economical and social subjects which it is necessary that the mass of people Shall have in order that they vote…in the best way to protect themselves from the brutal force and chicanery of the ruling and employing classes.”
“It was not until the 1920s that you really get the notion of professional journalists, the way we think about them today,” says Michael Delli Carpini, dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. “A lot of different schools of journalism started, codes of ethics were developed, the whole notion of the journalist as objective came into play …. of standing outside the story, telling both sides, of being factual rather than opinionated.”
“The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy; the growth of corporate power; and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.” -Alex Carey, Australian social scientist who pioneered the investigation of corporate propaganda (see Taking the Risk Out Of Democracy, Univ of New South Wales, 1995)
Federal Campaign laws passed after Watergate, that abridge the 1st Amendment rights of citizens but exempt media corporations are how the above paragraph was accomplished. – Me
Have the oligarchs tired of their D team and are now preparing to bring in their R team?
Let’s just hope that the alternative candidate is not one of the radical progressive Democrats who is a pro with word salad promises that will do nothing but continue the destruction of America
They had to go all the way back to the 60’s to find some kind of “honest media” story? That, and Durham non-prosecutions, tell me more than MSM thinks anyone should ever know.
The Lame Stream Media has made an all out effort to hide the dealings of the Biden crime family. However, the desire to have the first “breaking news” is strong. Above all, none of them want to be the last to put out a story. Once the weakened dam starts to leak (CBS) a huge break often quickly follows.
Yeah. Mainstream Media sure was implicated in the Trump-Russia thingy. NOT!
The truth will come out and Joe will have to resign. Then charges will be brought against him and his family.
“I did not speak with my son.” sounds like “I did not have sex with that woman.” Just one more lying politician.
What about Hillary? Obama? Rice? Lynch? Clapper? Brennon? Comey? The list of criminals is quite long.
The last paragraph is all that’s necessary. The leftist media is realizing that Biden has too many issues to realistically prop up. They did their best, but they believe they’ve got a better candidate on hold. Is it Kamala? Is it Newsom? Can they cover for RFK Jr’s quirky peccadilloes and promote him? Believe me, CBS is not any kind of friend to normal Americans. They simply find themselves in a quandary they’ve created and are trying hard to find their way out.
While not implied in Shane’s article, one should not believe that CBS has all of a sudden found Jesus. If they’re willing to start reporting on Biden’s crime family there has to be a reason why. I suspect the media will all turn on Joe as no one wants to see him stumble into a second term. They definitely wouldn’t want him to get elected to a second term, then he either dies or has to step down, leaving Harris as Pres! They can control a feeble old man, Harris just might surprise them and decide to do things her way…scary right.
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Not much real journalism today, most just repeat what their masters tell them to say
Crooked Jack*ss Joe isn’t as strong as Lying Jack*ss Joe but both are more than appropriate when referring to this terrible example of an American President!
While I applaud the courage of CBS, we are not there yet. Until the news breaks from the New York Times, the Dems main communication outlet, will we know the level of Biden’s support. But rest assured, the knives will come out for Biden, once the Dems find a replacement candidate not named Harris. Biden is succumbing to physical and emotional pressure, and he is fading day by day, with another 17 months to go, the Dems know they are in a log rolling toward Niagra Falls.
The entire commie media complex has been complicit, hoax after hoax and not even mentioning the criminals. Now reporting to get rid of Joe.
Biden never had America. He had traitors perpetrating a soft coup via voter/election fraud.
The idiots who voted for Biden will vote for him again. His base-ignorant blacks, leftist Jews, gays, feminists, illegal immigration and anti fracking advocates, gun control nuts and the usual morons who run the media, academy and Hollywood-do not care how much damage he does to this country.
The beasts in the media have joined the hue and cry to dump Feinstein, upsetting Pelosi’s plan to have Schiff-for-brains take her seat in the ’24 election. Deliciously, Newsom is now jammed up with a ballooning budget deficit, retail fleeing SF en masse, and reparations.
Now the media is entering the effort to dump senile, decrepit, corrupt Creepy Sleepy Quid Pro Joe before the Democrats suffer an election loss in ’24 to rival ’72 or ’84. Before they get too far out over their skis, they must be reminded Horizontal Harris is another existential threat to the nation and world peace. They both must go… the sooner the better.
The tides are turning because the establishment had hoped Biden would formally decline to run for a second term. His dementia-tinged word salads and deeply ineffectual leadership was tolerable only if he served as a stop gap for a younger, more “energizing”, and darker skinned Democrat to take the reigns. For whatever reason, Biden either didn’t get the memo, or he ignored it.
The first signs of the Democrat machine’s opposition towards a second Biden run were made evident with the revelation of Biden keeping classified documents. They likely hoped that the blatant hypocrisy created by making him appear guilty of the same “crime” that the WH was leveling at Trump would suffice in making Biden have second thoughts about running – but, if so, then their ploy obviously failed, which likely means that the intra-party pressure on him to drop out will only continue to increase, and then finally snowball as we get closer to the first Democrat Primaries.
If we are to assume that that’s what is happening here, then I would expect that CBS’s “stunning” “defection” from Team Biden will end up being just one of many more to come, with headlines involving Joe, his family’s corrupt dealings, DOJ abuses – and probably even a number of terrible things that we’ve yet to learn about – being printed and disseminated in nearly every corner of the establishment liberal media complex. And if that STILL isn’t enough for him to take the hint, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are additional actions of a much darker nature to be employed, if only as a last resort.
Perhaps Joe is too demented at this point to understand, or is perhaps too arrogant – or both – but my sense is that his hapless, deeply embarrassing time in the WH has been tolerated for long enough, and that “change” is coming in leadership, and it’s coming with or without his participation.
The recent poll showing that 66% (!!!) of the population now believes it would be either a “setback” or a “disaster” if Biden were reelected, and the astonishing fact that CNN reported on it, may indeed mean that the media stonewall that has protected Biden is finally collapsing. Certainly it will be immensely satisfying if this evil, corrupt, dishonest, arrogant fool is driven from office and publicly humiliated. Of course the Democrats will replace him with someone equally destructive, but Biden is a uniquely despicable person, so even if all we get is some long-overdue Schadenfreude, it will be a pleasure after the nightmare of his presidency.
And if the media stops hiding the extent of Biden’s crimes, perhaps the public will begin to figure out just how toxic the entire Democrat Party has become.
What Conkrite said about Tet was an absolute lie. It was a massive loss for the VC and might have ended the war then and there if the US press had been honest about it. These guys haven’t changed.
Ding Ding Ding Ding. Congrats for the end of the article. You win a prize. 100% the knives are out for Biden because they do not think he can win in 2024. They see the polls and they are only going to get worse. They want to replace him, with literally anyone
CBS is still Fake News. They are only doing as they are told. If the Deep State and Dems still wanted him in office then they would not put out anything
Dems are just gathering the evidence to force his withdrawal at the last minute with a substitution of someone like Newsom. Then they can avoid all the debates, etc.
Eventually, Democrats will have to ask Biden to resign. It’s just not okay to take a bribe.
Undoubtably, Congress has a copy of the incriminating form. I cannot imagine a whistleblower not making a copy.
Secretary Wray could be in plenty of trouble if he is obstructing the investigation.
The difference between Johnson and Joe is LBJ,for all his lack of character was a sane and practical thinker. A senile shell of a criminal will likely become angry and obstinate refusing to relinquish his position. English teacher Jill will not permit her schemes to be exposed and pay the price.
I believe he will hang on until the dems fully turn on him
With the FBI and the DOJ in Bidens camp what can we do ?
I was in the military during the Viet Nam war but was never in combat and I remember when LBJ chose not to run again. Additionally I will never forget being scorned in public by the same Leftists who are running our government today, much to this nation’s detriment.
They hated America back then, and they continue to do so today and are actively trying to destroy this nation, the last great hope for freedom.
Sad to say cronkite Was wrong and didn’t know what he was talking. We destroyed the VC killing over a hundred thousand of them they were finished and the north was about to throw in the towel. Check the history Cronkite was full of bullsh*t
an incident that reportedly caused Johnson to remark, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost America.”
except LBJ was at a fund-raising dinner for John Connolly at the time,.,not watching TV, there’s no record if his ever saying that
Amazing how much power and standing the DNC gave to the progressives/Leftists and communist portion that now run their corporation.
Today’s coverup coverage is a classic prisoners’ delema. If they all see and say nothing, Democrats benefit but the individual outlets lose crdibility. The first to break ranks gain back some credibility by breaking the true news. However, if they all report the truth, they discredit themselves and lose the benefits of individual truth telling.
Really good writing. As a kid in the 60’s
I remember the soothing voice of Walter Cronkite…as he spoke to a broken generation. We had just watched our President die, now we were watching our friends die. Johnson was awful…Biden wants to end America. Force him into retirement!
Why is it that these news agencies don’t have an inkling about these things before it gets too late ! They’re news agencies snd have reporters who are suppose to get at the truth? What the hell ? If they were honest and truthful they wouldn’t have to prop up a lousy representative like Biden to begin with ! Are they ignorant or what?
I was watching the night Walter Cronkite made that statement. No one in todays news has the respect that Cronkite had.
Not at all surprising. If the news wants to have ethics, they will have to turn against Biden who is an obvious criminal. They will also soon turn against that woman who is obviously fabricating a false rape charge against President Trump as well and turn towards Trump in his bid to the White House, even though CBS is a liberal news station. They will have to, if they want to be seen as a credible news source, again.
Now, wouldn’t that be a reversal of trend! Nevertheless, I doubt the mainstream media will do anything serious enough to taint the biden administration. We’ll hear hints of ” after looking into this more deeply, we see another approach to this issue”. It won’t be the stinging indictment the bidens clearly deserve.
The Media should never have had the kind of power they exercised then and now. We need to have as many nakedly partisan right wing media as there are left wing ones, but right now we don’t. All broadcast TV are left wing.
Cronkite was fake news. We actually won the Test Offensive, but the media was against the Vietnam War and wouldn’t acknowledge our successes.
The DemonRats know how to cheat, that’s how they “won” in 2020.
Don’t know if you know this but…..CBS is watched by NOBODY so the country will not know about this until ALL NETWORKS TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT ALL DemocRATS and this administration.
There are many people (not all are Democrats) who want to do the same thing to the Ukraine today. After all, it worked for them in Afghanistan didn’t it?