Clouds

This Politico story provides a template for EMAILZ Part II Electric Boogaloo. Here’s the nut graph:

Biden’s image as a straight-shooting man of the people, however, is clouded by the careers of his son and brother, who have lengthy track records of making, or seeking, deals that cash in on his name. There’s no evidence that Joe Biden used his power inappropriately or took action to benefit his relatives with respect to these ventures. Interviews, court records, government filings and news reports, however, reveal that some members of the Biden family have consistently mixed business and politics over nearly half a century, moving from one business to the next as Joe’s stature in Washington grew.

None of the ventures appear to have been runaway successes, and Biden’s relatives have not been accused of criminal wrongdoing in their dealings. But over the years, several of their partners and associates have ended up indicted or convicted. The dealings have brought Joe unwelcome scrutiny and threaten to distract from his presidential bid.

In other words, this is a non-story, or should be. That a very powerful and influential politician who has been near the top of the political world for nearly a half century has relatives who have tried to take advantage of their association with that politician in their own business dealings is . . . totally unremarkable. It’s not dog bites man, it’s more like dog barks at passing squirrel.

But these stories have to be published anyway because Both Sides is the iron law of DC journalism, especially in the Age of Trump, where the search for “balance” is a truly Kafkaesque journey that never ends.