Politics and Spin

I've mentioned before on this blog how I dislike political discourse because of the conflict, spin, dishonesty, lack of charity, etc. I wanted to point out a perfectly good example of this that happened just in the last couple of days.

For a while now, republicans (especially James Comer) have been accusing the Biden family of corruption in which Joe Biden did political favours (like having the attorney investigating Burisma fired) in exchange for money from foreign entities. Comer and others accused the Bidens of money-laundering and tax evasion.

Before Biden left office, he pardoned some members of his family, including his brother, James.

Now, Fox News and other right-wing sources are claiming that in pardoning his family, Joe Biden is implicitly admitting that they are all guilty.

I'm no fan of the Bidens, and I think they probably are guilty, but in all fairness, the pardon is not an implicit confession of guilt. The reason is because there are at least two other possibilities that don't imply guilt. Here's all three possibilities.

1. It could be that they are guilty, and Joe wants to protect them all from prosecution. If this is the case, then it does imply guilt.

2. It could be that Joe is concerned that Trump will use the justice department to go after the Biden family for political reasons, and Biden wants to protect them. This has nothing to do with whether or not anybody is guilty.

3. It's also possible that Joe wants to create the appearance that Trump is a vindictive individual who would use his political power to go after his political opponents. In other words, the pardon is meant simply to make Trump look bad. Again, this would have nothing to do with whether or not the Bidens are guilty.

So, there are three possible motives for pardening Joe's family that I can think of, and only one of them implies an admission of guilt. Notice, though, that the right wing media simply runs with the most uncharitable interpretation. This is not journalism. This is spin. And all sides do it. And the people who consume media eat this stuff up. They go on social media, repeat the uncharitable spin as if it were fact, and it never ends. They love the spin. That's why all these lying news organizations still make money. It's how dishonest politicians keep getting elected.

There is very little charity, fair-mindedness, or honesty when it comes to conversations about politics. I would just ask people to stop taking the news so seriously. Stop taking politicians so seriously. Stop taking political commentators so seriously. They're all full of it. Just slow down and think things through. Don't jump on some bandwagon just because it makes the other side look bad or makes your side look good. That is not how level-headed people behave.