#2020’s 10 most buried stories and other commentary

Media watch: 2020’s 10 Most Buried Stories

At RealClearPolitics, retired editor Frank Miele — who used to help choose AP’s top 10 stories of the year — is so fed up with journalism that he is offering his first annual “Last Chance to Wake Up and Smell the News They Tried to Kill” list. Among 2020’s top-contender stories: “Mutating lockdowns” that let some stores stay open but not others. “Trump’s vaccine victory,” which “led to the fastest turnaround ever” for such a medication. Hunter Biden’s laptop, first reported by The Post but buried by many others in “one of the greatest victories in the history of propaganda.” Gov. ­Cuomo’s orders that led to thousands of nursing-home deaths. George Soros’ successful campaign “to subvert American jurisprudence by electing pro-criminal” DAs. And of course: “the suppression of news itself.”

Iconoclast: The Real Authoritarian Threat

“Asserting that Donald Trump is a fascist-like dictator threatening the previously sturdy foundations of US democracy has been a virtual ­requirement over the last four years,” Glenn Greenwald observes at his blog. “Yet it has proven to be a preposterous farce,” since the bombastic developer repeatedly passed up opportunities to act like a tyrant. The real authoritarian forces in US life, rather, are “corporate behemoths close to unchallengeable in terms of both economic and political power” owing to a combination of lockdowns, corporate welfare and our growing dependence on online activities. Worse, “the primary beneficiaries of these rapid changes are Silicon Valley giants, at least three of which — Facebook, Google and Amazon — are now classic monopolies” that not only dominate markets but can shape how and what we get to read and think.

From the right: The China Connection

Hunter Biden and House Intelligence Committee Democrat Eric Swalwell have much in common, including “their dealings with China” and a press “uninterested in getting to the bottom of their stories,” snarks The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn. “Their cases are only a microcosm of what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo” calls “an all-out Chinese Communist Party effort ‘to make Americans receptive to Beijing’s form of ­authoritarianism.’ ” Don’t be fooled by China’s duplicitous ways, including “friendship” associations: The regime will “use whatever tools it has to mute opposition to China.” Businesses kowtow, too: China was angry about the Dalai Lama biopic “Kundun,” and when Robert Iger became Disney CEO, “he made a priority of getting back in China’s good graces.” Now Iger “is being floated as Joe Biden’s ambassador to Beijing.”

Foreign desk: Russia’s Rogue Regime

America can no longer afford to ignore Russia’s “growing list of egregious crimes,” argues Garry Kasparov at CNN. Its “assassinations of political targets at home and abroad,” invasion of Ukraine and hacking of US targets make clear that Vladimir Putin “has become bolder and more dangerous than ever.” The exiled Kasparov doesn’t “drink tea with strangers” or “fly with the state-owned airline Aeroflot,” but “no one is untouchable in a world where criminals go unpunished.” World leaders have yet to hold the Kremlin responsible for any of its misdeeds, including the attempted murder of dissident Alexey Navalny. “Putin’s henchmen are sloppy, because they can afford to be. Just like their boss, they don’t fear any repercussions.” But it’s long “past time to treat Putin’s Russia like the rogue regime it has become.”

Space beat: Beijing’s Big Plans

President-elect Joe Biden’s NASA transition team wants to “start what could be the biggest transfer of technology to China,” which “could result in the Chinese military dominating space and, with it, world affairs,” warns Gordon G. Chang at The Hill. China’s space program “is military at its core.” Beijing reportedly plans to “colonize the Moon,” with “no intention of allowing others” to do so, making it all too easy “to dominate the new ‘interstates’ to the heavens.” Attempts to partner with China are “deeply misguided,” and the “stakes are high.” Team Biden must understand “cooperation does not necessarily lead to a better relationship with militant regimes.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board