MATT LONDON: A White House memo instructs all U.S. media how to report the Biden impeachment process – accusing ‘liars and hucksters’ of peddling disinformation. Have they no irony… or shame?

A very blunt memo to the White House: Back off – the US media is not your damn mouthpiece.

On Wednesday morning, the president made his deep-seated disdain for the press extremely clear when his White House sent a Soviet-style communiqué to every major media organization in the country.

It should be received in the spirit in which it was sent – and placed in the trash where it belongs.

“It is time for the media to step up their scrutiny of Republicans in the House of Representatives for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies,” reads the note, sent from an official US government email account.

“Or else, what?” must be the unequivocal answer.

Perhaps this administration needs to be reminded: In America, journalists do not take their marching orders from the people in power. And when a fourteen-page White House script shows up in the mass media’s inbox, there is reason to be deeply suspicious.

“We hope this document provides you with factual information useful in your reporting…” wrote Ian Sams, Special Assistant to the President.

What is this agitprop waste? Don’t think for a moment that we would confuse political talking points with “factual information.”

This is the same White House that is challenging Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre to dodge, obfuscate and do everything within her limited power to avoid answering serious questions.

But the insult was even worse than that.

This mission of the federal government is intended to intimidate.

“Don’t Cross Us” is the unwritten threat as journalists and ordinary citizens face increasing risk of government-directed censorship.

“In the modern media environment, where liars and peddlers spread disinformation every day and spread lies everywhere from Facebook to Fox,” Sams writes, “stories that fail to address the illegality of the claims that Republicans in the House of Representatives are already making base their actions, to unravel. to sow confusion, plant false premises in people’s feeds, and obscure the truth.”

The Left’s use of the vague new buzzword “disinformation” against freedom of expression should not be overlooked by anyone.

On Friday, a federal appeals court ruled that the Biden administration likely violated the First Amendment by “coercing” social media platforms “through harassing messages and threats” to remove content the White House did not like.

And ironically, the term “disinformation” was also used to justify the suppression of reporting that gave rise to this whole impeachment saga.

When the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop exploded into public view on the eve of the 2020 election, Joe Biden’s team quickly tried to sweep it under the rug.

None other than then-Biden campaign manager and now Secretary of State Antony Blinken was reportedly part of an operation to get 51 former intelligence officials to write a letter denouncing the laptop as “Russian disinformation.”

That was a clear warning to the media: if you report on this laptop, you are Putin’s stooge. And it can get you censored on Twitter and Facebook.

Three days later, Joe Biden repeated that same “Russian disinformation” falsehood as he faced Donald Trump on the presidential debate stage.

“There are 50 former national intelligence people who said what he’s accusing me of is a Russian scheme,” he said.

What about ‘liars and hucksters’ who ‘spread misinformation and lies?’

The hypocrisy is shameless.

But ‘liars and hucksters?’ That’s really too much.

It was Joe Biden, not anyone in the media, who swore from head to toe that he “never discussed anything with my son, or my brother, or anyone else, that had to do with their companies, period… There will be an absolute wall between the personal and the private, and the government.”

But now we know that as vice president, Joe attended several fancy Georgetown dinners with Hunter’s shady foreign clients; that Vice President Biden personally thanked Hunter’s partner, Devon Archer, for doing business with his son; that VP Biden attended his son’s business meetings at least 20 times and gave Hunter a ride on Air Force Two at least 15 times to countries like China, where Hunter had lucrative interests.

And we are the ‘liars and hucksters?’

In 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden claimed that his “son didn’t make any money (from) China.”

But in 2023, Hunter admitted in court to making hundreds of thousands of dollars from Chinese-owned companies linked to the communist regime.

Look in the mirror, Joe.

At best, this White House memo is little more than a smokescreen designed to hopelessly muddy the waters. At worst, it’s meant to scare news organizations into toeing the line.

But it won’t work. First, it laughably cannot withstand even the slightest scrutiny.

“Virtually every claim House Republicans have suggested would be the basis for pursuing impeachment has been refuted,” Sams wrote.

Virtual?

An annoying word. It means ‘almost’, ‘almost’, ‘more or less’.

It begs the question: what accusations still persist? Which ones have proven to be true?

Sams takes issue with Republican claims that bank records showed $20 million in payments from foreign sources went to the “Biden family.”

“Most of the money was paid to non-Bidens, and none of the money flowed to Joe Biden,” he wrote.

That’s hardly an excuse. There is even solid evidence, in the form of emails, that Joe and Hunter’s assets were commingled. What’s also conveniently left out of the memo is that $7.5 million undoubtedly flowed directly to “the Bidens” and the rest ended up in the pockets of Hunter’s business associates.

The American public needs to be aware of this, even if the White House disagrees.

Perhaps the Biden administration is trying to take advantage of declining public trust in the media. Call it the “Donald Trump Strategy.”

Every time a damaging revelation emerges about Joe Biden’s shifting narrative or his family benefiting from an international influence operation, they want to be able to scream “fake news.” But there is nothing bogus about the allegations detailed here.

When Biden took office, his White House promised to “bring transparency and truth back to government, to share the truth even when it’s hard to hear.” They haven’t done anything like that.

The American media should be universally outraged by such a desperate attempt at manipulation.

The White House should be ashamed.