Since the New York Post broke the story on Hunter Biden last week, there has been a journalistic effort to dismiss it as "disinformation." This is the leftist aligned media doing everything they can not to cover the story, but to discredit it. This was after their attempts at completely ignoring the story failed. CNN brought on Obama aide James Clapper to dismiss it as Soviet-style Russian propaganda.
On CNN’s Newsroom on Monday, host Brianna Keilar followed the game plan, bringing on Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter: “You call this a classic example of the right-wing media machine.”
Stelter gleefully stated “This is an example of Steve Bannon giving a tip to a New York Post reporter. Rudy Giuliani handing over a bunch of documents. The New York Post putting it on the front page and then Fox running with it for days on end. Creating this appearance of a scandal involving Hunter Biden.”
When CNN gets anti-Trump dirt from partisan sources -- like it used to get from Clapper when he still worked for Obama -- they kept their sources anonymous.
Stelter apparently can't find a new angle in the Post story -- that Biden denied over and over again on national TV ever talking to his son about his clients, but the emails show he met with an executive of Burisma, Hunter's Ukrainian client. Instead, he suggested a la James Carville that this was re-litigating old news: "Hunter Biden has acknowledged he had poor judgment in working with foreign enterprises when is he father was Vice President. This was all litigated last year during the impeachment saga, but the right-wing media wants it back in the news."
Stelter was touting an article by his last employer The New York Times that alleged staffers at the Post did not want their bylines attached to the original piece, because they doubt the validity of the information. Throughout the entire article, there was not a single named source given to back up that claim.
Stelter further attacked the process opining: “I have confirmed what the New York Times reported overnight which is that some New York Post reporters, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch with a right wing bent. Some of those reporters were so wary of the story, they saw how sketchy it was they didn't want anything to do it.” Just as with the original article, Stelter did not give and was not pushed for more information or to reveal his source.
Keilar did not question either the New York Times or her guest on the validity. There was not a comment on the lack of information just a declaration: “I mean, that is so telling Brian. From a reporter’s perspective that is incredibly telling.”
This CNN bias was sponsored by Sandals Hotels and Resorts and Nutrisystem. Click on the links to let them know what you think.
A transcript of the October 19th Coverage is included below:
Newsroom
10/19/20
2:42 AM ETBRIANNA KEILAR: A "New York post" story about Joe Biden and his son Hunter have wreaked havoc in the tabloid’s newsroom. Staffers are allegedly upset that the story was published at all for credibility and sourcing issues. Some writers at the Post reportedly did not want their bylines attached to it. Brian Stelter is CNN’s chief media correspondent. He is the anchor of CNN’s Reliable Sources” and he’s with us now. Just give us the reporting and the context here Brian. You call this a classic example of the right-wing media machine.
BRIAN STELTER: That’s right. This is an example of Steve Bannon giving a tip to a New York Post reporter. Rudy Giuliani handing over a bunch of documents. The New York Post putting it on the front page and then Fox running with it for days on end. Creating this appearance of a scandal involving Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden has acknowledged he had poor judgment in working with foreign enterprises when is he father was Vice President. This was all litigated last year during the impeachment saga, but the right-wing media wants it back in the news. They view it as a closing argument for the Trump campaign. Trump is out there tweeting a storm about it claiming it’s a giant scandal.
But the real story is what’s behind the story. These maneuverings by Rudy to try to stir up a scandal. And I have confirmed what the New York Times reported overnight which is that some "New York Post" reporters, a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch with a right wing bent. Some of those reporters were so wary of the story, they saw how sketchy it was they didn't want anything to do it, they didn't want their bylines. Normally we want to make sure we want to get credit for it, we want our bylines on the story, but in this case, no, the "New York Post" reporters ranted the opposite. They could sense this was a very sketchy, dubious story.
KEILAR: I mean, that is so telling Brian. From a reporter’s perspective that is incredibly telling....
KEILAR: Let's get back to that Post story, Brian. Because you have Republican Senator Ron Johnson, who is the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, he seemingly was prodded by Fox to add an even more salacious speculation about the Bidens.
STELTER: Yes, and this is absolutely appalling behavior by the Senator, but it was prompted by Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo, who is channeling QAnon by trying to bring up child pornography. And trying to claim that there is this issue with the Bidens that are absolutely inventive. This is a GOP fantasy, the most disgusting kind of GOP fantasy, trying to link Biden to pedophilia. We’ve seen the President retweeting ideas like that. It is -- I wonder Brianna how we can ever get back to a norm at political culture where there's so many smears being spread, including by Fox anchors, including by GOP Senators. It was more Bartiromo's fault for prompting Johnson to talk about it yesterday, but it’s still inappropriate for Johnson to even go along with the interview. How do we ever get back to a normal political culture when there is so much conspiracy crap out there? I don’t know the answer to that question.
KEILAR: It is a question that certainly at some point this country is going to have to reckon with. Brian Stelter, thank you.
