It took a week, but CNN En Español (CNNEE) finally reported on the explosive information obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop, which first broke via the New York Post. Unlike their counterparts on Spanish-language network TV, though, CNNEE went to great lengths to discredit and dismiss the story.
Here’s how Directo USA anchor Juan Carlos López closed out his lengthy report on the Biden laptop: by dismissing the story as slanderous and having “little credibility”:
LOPEZ: The crime would be to report slanderous information. The crime would be to not do our jobs. President Trump can be upset, he can be outraged, but if the information is not verifiable it cannot be published. There is a debate over freedom of expression, and those who consider that they can say whatever they want and they can say it. But we, as a media outlet, only report and publish the information we verify- to not do so would be irresponsible. For that reason,regardless of many attacks may come from the president, that information remains suspicious and has little credibility.
It wasn’t that long ago that Directo USA was respected as a serious news outlet- even, and perhaps grudgingly so, by Hispanic conservatives. But that was then. CNN En Español now clearly suffers from the same Trump Derangement Syndrome that has enveloped and consumed the rest of the Cable News Network.
López goes to great lengths to attempt to discredit the NYP bombshell by claiming that it was “slanderous” and “unverified”, with multiple insinuations of the Hunter story being little more than a Russian-style hoax. In setting up video of President Trump calling the Bidens “criminals”, López insinuates:
Within these materials there is an email that shows that Hunter Biden, according to this version (of events), introduced one of his partners at the Ukrainian firm to Vice President Biden at the White House, or on White House grounds. Upon reviewing the documents, the Biden campaign states that the date does not match and that the email lacks key information such as a date, origin, and it is also known that many of these documents were created in Eastern Europe, the documents that were handed over and on that computer. There is a great deal of suspicion.
Yes, it is shocking that an email thread to an Eastern European might contain emails originated in Eastern Europe. In some circles, these are known as replies. Perhaps CNNEE can do an investigative report on that.
What’s worse, López went so far as to justify Facebook and Twitter’s censorship of the story:
Doubts over the veracity of the material have led to their diffusion being limited by Facebook and Twitter, although Twitter has since modified their position.
CNNEE didn’t exercise that same level of editorial discretion when reporting a string of unverified stories regarding President Trump, including, among others:
-The rumored Puerto Rico-Greenland swap
-Trump’s Taxes
-The “suckers and losers” smear of the fallen at Belleau Wood
There is great doubt over the veracity and verifiability of that material, but there were no such constraints at CNN En Español because Orange Man Bad. López’ laughably one-sided reporting on the contents of the Biden laptop, despite a steady stream of corroborative accounts, is something we’d expect- to be frank, from his Anglophone counterparts, and is further proof of CNN’s pathetic slide into the Trump Derangement abyss.
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Click "Expand" to view a translated transcript of the aforementioned transcript as aired on CNNEE's Directo USA on Tuesday, October 20th, 2020:
JUAN CARLOS LÓPEZ, CNNEE: And the Department of Justice issued a harsh warning to Russia due to their cyber activities at the same time the FBI investigates whether the leak of alleged emails from the son of former Vice President Joe Biden is part of a Russian disinformation campaign. And now, we go straight to the news.
It happened this Monday, at a Department of Justice press conference, They are officials of both the DOJ and one of their agencies, the FBI. Federal law enforcement announced the filing of charges against 6 officials of the Russian military intelligence agency known as the GRU. What are they charged with? They are accused of being behind cyberattacks against the interests of other countries, but although it was against other countries, per reports, they infected the United States. The warning, issued by one of the highest-ranking officials in the Justice Department, was clear. We were going to hear audio, let’s move forward with a detailed report of the charges against these individuals.
JOHN DEMERS, ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR NATIONAL SECURITY: ...no country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously and irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented collateral damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite.
The defendants in this case were all members of Military Unit 74455 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, an intelligence agency known as the GRU. The Department previously charged members of this same unit, also known to cybersecurity researchers as “Sandworm Team,” for their role in Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. elections. We make no election interference allegations here. Rather, today’s charges illustrate how Unit 74455’s election activities were but one part of the work of a persistent, sophisticated hacking group busy sabotaging perceived enemies or detractors of the Russian Federation…
LOPEZ: And although they reiterated that the charges have nothing to do with the 2020 election, it bears noting that at a time when the FBI is investigating, yes, the leak of emails that allegedly come from a computer belonging to Hunter Biden and that, according to a conservative media outlet, show corruption (which it really doesn’t show), then, they are announcing charges against members of Russian intelligence belonging to the same unit that interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
But let’s review that allegation that an alleged computer containing emails that show alleged acts of corruption that, when you read the material, that they say is real but that isn’t- hasn’t been verified, prove absolutely nothing.
On October 14th, the New York Post, a newspaper belonging to mogul Rupert Murdoch- who also owns the Fox News network, published a so-called “exclusive” over Hunter biden and the content that they allege to have come from his personal computer. According to that version, the owner of a computer repair shop in Delaware, the state where former Vice President Joe Biden lives, -the shop owner is also legally blind- states to have received from someone who he believes to be Hunter Biden...he can’t guarantee that, Hunter Biden lives in California- a laptop in April of 2019. According to the individual, the person that dropped off the laptop disappeared and after 90 days and with no answer from its owner, (the shop owner) became the owner of the laptop. He claims to have notified the FBI, which at first blew him off, but later asked him for a copy of the hard drive before coming back with a warrant and taking the laptop. But the individual, very cautious, made a copy of the materials and forwarded them to an attorney for Rudy Giuliani, adviser and former personal attorney to President Donald Trump. Let’s continue. Rudy Giuliani, a key figure in the effort to pressure the Ukrainian government into announcing an investigation against Joe Biden and his son Hunter, a request that led to the House impeachment of President Trump and subsequent acquittal in the Senate; that same Rudy Giuliani obtained a hard drive with personal information, allegedly of Hunter Biden. There’s more. Steve Bannon, former adviser to President Trump and who was publisher of a conservative media outlet, is free on bail on fraud charges in an initiative to build a private border wall. They raised about 25 million dollars, and the charging document states that they utilized (those) funds in order to maintain their lavish lifestyle. So, as it is known, Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani gave that material to the New York Post and have not allowed anyone else to review the contents of that hard drive, which would allow its origin to be verified, could verify a great deal of information.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said that he saw no evidence that the material revealed by the New York Post was related to a Russian disinformation campaign. But Ratcliffe, who took office in May of this year, is a former Republican congressman with no intelligence experience but with proven loyalty to President Trump. This is why his credibility is not that solid, even more so when he works in the intelligence community but the investigation is brought forth by the FBI, and it remains unclear why he got involved in a partisan issue.
Doubts over the veracity of the material have led to their diffusion being limited by Facebook and Twitter, although Twitter has since modified their position.
Within these materials there is an email that shows that Hunter Biden, according to this version (of events), introduced one of his partners at the Ukrainian firm to Vice President Biden at the White House, or on White House grounds. Upon reviewing the documents, the Biden campaign states that the date does not match and that the email lacks key information such as a date, origin, and it is also known that many of these documents were created in Eastern Europe, the documents that were handed over and on that computer. There is a great deal of suspicion. Now, President Trump did say that he was outraged and upset that this isn’t widely broadcast- what looks to be a campaign strategy ahead of the election. This is how he referred to the press -in his usual offensive terms- yesterday, for not going along with that version.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He's a criminal. He got caught. Read his laptop. You know who is the criminal? You're a criminal for not reporting it. You are a criminal for not reporting it. Let me tell you something, Joe Biden is a criminal and he's been a criminal for a long time and you're a criminal and the media for not reporting it.
LOPEZ: The crime would be to report slanderous information. The crime would be to not do our jobs. President Trump can be upset, he can be outraged, but if the information is not verifiable it cannot be published. There is a debate over freedom of expression, and those who consider that they can say whatever they want and they can say it. But we, as a media outlet, only report and publish the information we verify- to not do so would be irresponsible. For that reason, no matter how many attacks may come from the president, that information remains suspicious and has little credibility.
