National Public Radio announced Thursday it would not covering the bombshell Hunter Biden story first reported by the New York Post, claiming that the story “doesn’t amount to much” and might be connected to Russian interference.
“There are many, many red flags in that New York Post investigation,” NPR Public Editor Kelly McBride wrote in a newsletter released on Thursday.
Why haven't you seen any stories from NPR about the NY Post's Hunter Biden story? Read more in this week's newsletter➡️ https://t.co/CJesPgmGvo pic.twitter.com/jAi7PnpbZf
— NPR Public Editor (@NPRpubliceditor) October 22, 2020
The newsletter cites an analysis article by one of their own media correspondents who claims that the emails, the Post, Rudy Giuliani who gave the laptop hard drive to the Post, all lack credibility.
The analysis also cites the Biden campaign’s claims that one of the alleged meetings orchestrated by Hunter between his father the former vice president and an adviser to the board of a Ukrainian company never appeared on the official schedule. Secret Service records released this week, however, show that Biden did in fact meet with the Ukrainian.
While the correspondent acknowledges that “the New York Post story could someday be proven accurate, or largely right,” it also says that the article could be “a far cry from investigative journalism, rather speculative partisan advocacy. A totem of our media moment.”
Despite the fact that the intelligence community debunked claims that the Post’s story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign, McBride claimed that it was wary that the information presented in the article was somehow connected to Russia’s attempts election interference.
“Intelligence officials warn that Russia has been working overtime to keep the story of Hunter Biden in the spotlight,” she wrote in the newsletter. “Even if Russia can’t be positively connected to this information, the story of how Trump associates Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani came into a copy of this computer hard drive has not been verified and seems suspect.”
Despite NPR’s coverage of the Russia hoax, based on an entirely unverified Steele Dossier, McBride also alleged that the Post’s forensic vetting process was not proof enough for NPR to cover the story.
“And if that story could be verified, the NY Post did no forensic work to convince consumers that the emails and photos that are the basis for their report have not been altered,” McBride noted.
NPR finalized their shaky stance to avoid covering the Biden story by claiming that the allegations in the Post’s article “don’t amount to much.”
“We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions,” NPR Managing Editor for News Terence Samuel told McBride. “And quite frankly, that’s where we ended up, this was … a politically driven event and we decided to treat it that way.”
The newsletter concludes by claiming they haven’t completely ignored the issue and have covered “how Facebook and Twitter are restricting distribution of the story or how families of those seeking treatment for addiction are impacted by the portrayal of Hunter Biden’s struggle.”
Following their announcement, the #defundNPR trended on Twitter on Thursday, with some calling for NPR’s federal funding to be pulled over their stated lack of coverage.
Twitter’s headline for the trending topic labeled the people calling for the defunding “a contingent of Republicans.”
lol Twitter's description: "a contingent of Republicans"
The only thing that would make this better is if it said "a contingent of Republicans pounce." #DefundNPR pic.twitter.com/tSkUfNcmfu
— Abigail Jackson 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) October 22, 2020
NPR had no problem covering the Russia hoax, but THIS is where they draw the line? #DefundNPR https://t.co/rOzNlH6gCT
— Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) October 22, 2020
I fully support defunding NPR.
They are a Left-wing propaganda outlet and should never receive another dime of taxpayer dollars.#DefundNPR
— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) October 22, 2020
It’s time to defund @NPR. This is appalling. #DefundNPR https://t.co/wFbY5lGGTG
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) October 22, 2020
.@NPR, a far left advocacy group funded with your tax dollars, details its corrupt suppression of the Biden scandal story. #DefundNPR https://t.co/W82J1B8f7T
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) October 22, 2020
