The media and Democrats (again, pardon the redundancy) are working hard to put the Hunter Biden laptop story behind them now that the New York Times has reported the laptop and its contents are authentic and not nonexistent “Russian disinformation.” However, much of the media strategy from this point forward will be to attempt to re-frame the story, and Vox is on it:
The main dispute regarding Hunter's laptop was not about whether the material was "real" but whether it proved Joe Biden's corruption as Trump's team claimed (it didn't)https://t.co/rkEXtB6XDH pic.twitter.com/dymaICBzky
— Andrew Prokop (@awprokop) March 25, 2022
But the heavy-handed intervention by Twitter especially to totally block links to the NY Post's story was ill-judged. It's difficult to come up with a coherent standard why that was appropriatehttps://t.co/rkEXtB6XDH pic.twitter.com/zKk53soPfw
— Andrew Prokop (@awprokop) March 25, 2022
But these tech interventions did not succeed in "suppressing" the story. It got ample discussion and coverage.
That coverage did not (1) dominate the news agenda, or (2) reflect Trump's narrative, though. Because the emails didn't actually prove Trump's case about Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/7rWBwCBltc
— Andrew Prokop (@awprokop) March 25, 2022
Also it was entirely appropriate for media to be deeply skeptical about opposition research released by Trump's team, as they tried to drive coverage in the final days of the campaign
(Most mainstream outlets, remember, took a pass on the Steele dossier before the 2016 election) pic.twitter.com/MrjUrDfbLD
— Andrew Prokop (@awprokop) March 25, 2022
Wait, if it seems there’s way more to the story than the dispute being over whether the laptop material was “real” — there is:
No, we were told it was Russian disinformation. You're just compounding the lie by pretending they never told it.
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) March 25, 2022
Completely revisionist history from Vox. The whole reason social media companies censored the story was because of false claims by media orgs questioning the laptop's veracity and the Biden presidential campaign's false claim that it was "Russian misinformation" pic.twitter.com/vK39q9rgBH
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) March 25, 2022
Yep, and Big Tech took it from there:
Meta's comms guy: pic.twitter.com/JHpVuG0LP0
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) March 25, 2022
Twitter locked the New York Post’s account as well. Now that the election’s safely behind, the NY Times can report that, hey, the story wasn’t “Russian disinformation” after all!
ahhhh so now we can be nuanced about it instead of just outright dismissing it….so much journalism. https://t.co/InpIwtuxNs
— Lenny Briscoe (@onekayeighty) March 25, 2022
Absolute bullshit. The main dispute regarding Hunter's laptop was 50 intelligence officials floating the false narrative, amplified by the media and Silicon Valley, that the very existence of the laptop was Russian disinformation. Vox is clearly uninterested in truth or integrity https://t.co/I6ae67finx
— Napping & Yapping (@Flat6forever) March 25, 2022
Yep. Remember this story that was being passed all around by Dems and others in the media?
Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say https://t.co/zRdHxTxVsl
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) October 20, 2020
Now they’re pretty quiet about it.
***
Related:
Jen Psaki refers reporter with question about her 2020 dismissal of Hunter Biden laptop story to DOJ
NY Post front page unloads on those who dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop story as ‘disinformation
Juan Williams says media was ‘properly cautious’ in calling Hunter Biden laptop story disinformation
Join the conversation as a VIP Member