With Politico's incredibly belated "revelation" about the validity of the 2020 New York Post stories about Hunter Biden's laptop, it is interesting to look back at the sheer desperation on the part of much of the media to discredit that story as Russian disinformation. Among the most amusing of the "legacy media" to memory hole that story in coordination with Twitter, Facebook, and much of the social media was CNN.
One amazing example was CNN/PBS anchor Christiane Amanpour being openly contemptuous as she interviewed President Donald Trump's spokesperson Liz Harrington, as NB's Tim Graham reported at the time. It's not hard to imagine CNN president Jeffrey Zucker screaming into her earpiece to get the discussion off that taboo Hunter Biden laptop story.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Are you comfortable with the president of the United States being close to a person like Rudy Giuliani who says also that he is not bothered whether any of the information comes from Russian hacking? What does that say?
LIZ HARRINGTON: Are you comfortable that CNN used Russian disinformation from a Russian asset to leak it to subvert the peaceful transfer of power? That reporting on the dossier was complete...
AMANPOUR: Liz, Liz...
HARRINGTON: ...complete verified Russian disinformation? Is it not? Is it not?
AMANPOUR: Liz, let's just get back to the story.
HARRINGTON: Was the dossier real? Was the dossier real? Oh, it's very relevant...
AMANPOUR: Can we get back to the current story?
HARRINGTON: ...because everything the Democrats accused us of doing is what they themselves did. Rudy Giuliani...
AMANPOUR: You know what, we always try, we...
HARRINGTON: ...is not a Russian asset and we've heard the smear very well before.
AMANPOUR: It's the United States government who said it, not me and not CNN. The United States government has reported...
HARRINGTON: The FBI -- OK. You know what, also the United States government says, the FBI says, this laptop is not Russian disinformation.
So, what are you talking about here, this laptop is real. It's not just a laptop. There's other e-mails, there's text messages. They are real. So, according to the U.S. government...
AMANPOUR: OK. I know that you're trying to move everybody to look at that but that's not what we're hearing from the FBI.
HARRINGTON: Why don't you want to report this? This is one of the most powerful families in Washington.
AMANPOUR: Liz, Liz, Liz--
HARRINGTON: The Biden family and you're OK, you're OK with our interests being sold out to profit...
AMANPOUR: Liz?
HARRINGTON: ...Joe Biden and his family when we're suffering during a pandemic from Communist China...
AMANPOUR: Yes. Absolutely, absolutely.
HARRINGTON: ...and he's doing shady deals...
AMANPOUR: Liz, as you know...
HARRINGTON: ...with Communist China and you're comfortable.
AMANPOUR: ...perfectly well, I'm a journalist and a reporter and I follow the facts. And there has never been any issues in terms of corruption. Now, let me ask you this. Yesterday, the FBI...
HARRINGTON: Wait, wait, wait.
AMANPOUR: The FBI...
HARRINGTON: How do you know that?
AMANPOUR: I'm talking about reporting and any evidence. I'm talking to you now...
HARRINGTON: I would love if you guys would start doing digging and start doing that verification.
AMANPOUR: Now, we're not going to do your work for you. I want to ask you a question...
HARRINGTON: That's a journalist's job.
AMANPOUR: ...contrary to what...
HARRINGTON: It's a journalist's job to find out if this is verified.
Got that? Christiane is a "journalist and reporter" who follows the facts...except when it comes to verifying the Hunter Biden laptop story. In that case she claimed "we're not going to do your work for you." It's not "their work" to confirm stories that make the Bidens look corrupt. Amanpour thinks "her work" is to insist "there has never been any issues in terms of corruption," and move on.
Hour on the hour, CNN insisted that "the intelligence community" -- nice, vague anonymous sourcing -- said the laptop story was Russian disinformation.
Here’s Alex Marquardt’s report. Basically blames Russia for the Hunter Biden emails.
— Turncoat Don (@TurncoatD) October 16, 2020
This all sounds so familiar. We should get someone to look into all this. Someone both sides respect. A Robert Mueller type.
Oh. pic.twitter.com/n95H1RRTrf
It now appears the biggest disinformation effort in 2020 was by the mainstream media led by CNN acting on behalf of the Biden campaign.
