You don’t want to become one of those people wishing ill on others, especially those who work in the same field as you do. That being said, the Corrupt Media has acted in such a shameful fashion for so long—especially since the ascendance of Trump—that it’s hard not to laugh when one of these extremist liberal outlets faceplants.

Such is the case with Esquire, which published a story calling out GOP critics of Joe Biden’s ethics-free pardon of his son Hunter on Sunday night before jetting off to Angola.

Profanity alert:

In a Tuesday column, liberal pundit Charles P. Pierce claimed that Hunter Biden was not the first presidential son caught up in controversy, asking readers, "Anybody Remember Neil Bush?"

"Nobody defines Poppy Bush's presidency by his son's struggles or the pardons he issued on his way out of the White House. The moral: Shut the f--- up about Hunter Biden, please," he wrote in the sub-headline.

Evidently, there were no editors around to check his claim because he doubled down:

"[The] lucky American businessman['s]… father exercised his unlimited constitutional power of clemency to pardon the Lucky American Businessman for all that S&L business way back when. The president's name was George H.W. Bush. The Lucky American Businessman was his son, Neil," Pierce continued.

There is only one small problem with this story: George H.W. Bush never pardoned his son Neil. Oops.

To paraphrase former CBS News Anchor Dan Rather following his false reporting on George W. Bush's National Guard service, “it could have been true.” (Although that quote is often associated with Rather, it doesn’t appear that he ever said exactly that exact phrase, just things that were similar.)

The internet proved to be a cruel mistress:

A legacy media tragicomedy in 3 acts, by @CharlesPPierce and @esquire. HT @KFILE pic.twitter.com/sCl4yfY4Ue

— Nick Gillespie (@nickgillespie) December 4, 2024

More Media Malfeasance: Trump's Scathing Wall Street Journal Takedown Shows Why We're Glad 'Mean Tweets' Are Back

The Lie-Able Sources Podcast: The Press Asks to Pardon Their Prior Pardon Denial Coverage

Esquire dutifully tried to clean up the mess, but it just kept snowballing:

The men's magazine later added an editor's note to the column: "An earlier version stated incorrectly that George H. W. Bush gave a presidential pardon to his son, Neil Bush. Esquire regrets the error."

Sometime later, the piece was removed. The link now takes readers to a page that says, "This Column is No Longer Available."

The page also includes a second editor's note that notes the column was "removed due to an error" and "Esquire regrets the mistake."

George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley weighed in:

...All columnists can make mistakes and you correct them and you move on. However, Esquire and Pierce have long viciously attacked those with opposing views as purveyors of disinformation. The desire to protect Biden in his abuse of official power seemed to override every other…

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) December 4, 2024

The desire to protect Biden in his abuse of official power seemed to override every other consideration.

Listen, as Turley pointed out, all columnists and reporters make mistakes—it happens despite our best efforts. But A) this one is pretty monumental (and pretty easy to check on the internet), and B) the progressive media has been so dishonest and so vicious against non-believers that it’s pretty hard to come up with any sympathy for either this outlet or this columnist.

They’re probably not upset that they reported false information—they’re upset they got caught.

As we say around these parts, “You can’t hate the media enough.”