On the heels of news Wednesday that an IRS whistleblower is prepared to allege political meddling in the Hunter Biden investigation, the news got worse Thursday for the First Son and his life of ruin as it was revealed that now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken was the catalyst behind the debunked and infamous October 2020 letter from former intelligence officials dismissing the surfacing of Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation.
This bombshell showing more interference in the 2020 election was nowhere to be found on the Thursday night newscasts on broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC or Friday morning during ABC’s Good Morning America or NBC’s Today. In contrast, CBS Mornings gave the story it's due with a two-minute-and-38-second report (with 17 seconds of that on the IRS angle).
CBS’s thoroughness was particularly ironic considering how, as we reported at the time, they accepted the letter as air-tight and factual, so they went ahead with the premise that the laptop’s accuracy was fishy. By November 2022, they changed their tune.
With the chyron reading “Antony Blinken Helped Craft Letter to Discredit Laptop,” co-host Tony Dokoupil began:
We’re going to turn now to new developments in the congressional probe into Hunter Biden’s business dealings. According to House Republicans, they’re saying that former CIA Director Michael Morell gave them new information about the origins of a letter from 50 former intelligence officials concerning Hunter Biden’s laptop that suggested Russian involvement in hacking the laptop’s contents.
Senior investigative correspondent and former Fox reporter Catherine Herridge set the table with a brief history lesson that, after the original New York Post story about Biden family corruption and the public revelation of Hunter’s laptop, it took “less than a week” for “more than 50 former intelligence officials” to sign onto “a statement that the laptop had ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’”
While she didn’t fit in the fact that the letter was used to help censor the Post’s reporting (and those who shared it), she did play a clip of Biden touting it in the final 2020 presidential debate as proof that concerns from then-President Trump were “a bunch of garbage.”
Then came the bombshell that this was all coordinated by the Biden campaign:
According to a letter released Thursday night from the Republican chairmen of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell told congressional investigators that, days after the laptop story, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, then a Biden campaign adviser, reached out to Morell and set in motion the events that led to the intelligence official’s public statement.
One minor quibble here would be this didn’t include the fact that it was then shared in the media, starting with an exclusive to then-Politico reporter and Deep State flunkey Natasha Bertrand.
Following an aside reminding viewers of the IRS allegations, she closed by with a snarky White House response and relaying she sought comment from “Morell, who is a former CBS News contributor, if the characterization of his congressional interview is accurate, and he declined to comment.”
After ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News had full stories on the IRS whistleblower (and nothing on the CBS Evening News), ABC’s Good Morning America ignored Hunter Biden altogether.
Over on NBC’s Today, co-host Hoda Kotb and senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson combined for a three-minute-and-27-second story on the IRS whistleblower.
ABC did, however, have time Friday morning for full stories on the dangers of cool-sculpting procedures to lose weight and an interview Queen Consort Camilia’s son gave to a British podcast. As for NBC, they were excited by MTV Awards announcing actress Jennifer Coolidge will be honored at this year’s show.
The lack of priorities on ABC NBC were brought to you by advertisers such as BMW (on NBC) and VRBO (on ABC). Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcripts from April 21, click here (for CBS) and here (for NBC).
