The infamous laptop belonging to Hunter Biden, which was initially dismissed as Russian disinformation, entered the American consciousness four years ago today, on October 14, 2020.
This event sparked a prolonged scandal involving big tech, corporate media, and the intelligence community.
Former New York Post deputy politics editor Emma-Jo Morris, who first reported on Hunter Bidens personal computer, told Fox News Digital, "I think that virtually every single mainstream outlet disgraced themselves." The laptop, which was later referred to as the "laptop from hell" by the New York Post staff, contained shocking videos, photos of drug use, explicit sexual acts, and sensitive business communications. The Post revealed the existence of this laptop just weeks before then-candidate Joe Biden was set to face off against then-President Trump.
In an act of censorship that was unprecedented in its uniformity, the explosive report by the Post was essentially suppressed by Big Tech and the mainstream media, effectively silencing an "October surprise" that many believe could have influenced the election outcome. Twitter, citing a violation of its terms of service on hacked materials, locked the New York Post out of its account for weeks and even blocked users from sharing the story link. Major outlets and social media platforms such as MSNBC, CNN, CBS, NPR, Washington Post, The New York Times, among others, either promoted the now-debunked "Russian disinformation" narrative or ignored the story entirely.
According to Morris, the "multiple scandals" that ensued following her story forever altered the trajectory of tech and media in America. "It definitely did change the trajectory of the tech history because first of all, obviously, the most glaring example is that the trust on Twitter was completely collapsed it led Elon Musk to buy the platform," Morris said. She added, "Now that he has acquired Twitter, it's completely changed the ability for censors to operate because he is just not playing ball with them."
The Russian disinformation narrative originated, in part, from an open letter written by 51 former intelligence officials, several of whom endorsed Joe Biden for president that year. They claimed that the laptop bore "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." This open letter quickly went viral and was echoed by Biden supporters, including his then-future White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who is now an MSNBC host.
"These people took the word of spies and completely misled the American public, either wittingly or unwittingly. I'm not sure which one is worse," Morris said. During a 2020 presidential debate, Biden quickly cited the letter, dismissing claims that the laptop was authentic as "a bunch of garbage" and only believed by then-President Trump and his allies.
Morris, who entered journalism to help Americans have "some sort of check on power and on tyranny," said the laptop censorship made her realize something critical. She noted the scandal was eye-opening because she realized corporate America has so much clout that tech and media companies were approached by the intelligence community to do their bidding. "Who was the central focal point of the corruption here? It was corporations. It was Big Tech and corporate media," Morris said.
Despite the fact that people following the saga "learned so much" through investigations by journalists and Congress, Morris, now a senior consultant for Beck & Stone, feels there was never real accountability for the people who pushed the bogus narrative that the "laptop from hell" was Russian disinformation. "The real sin in all of this was the collaboration between social media, legacy media and the intelligence community," Morris said.
Morris initial Post story focused on a 2015 email from a Ukrainian energy executive to Hunter Biden, thanking him for introducing him to his father. The email was obtained from the hard drive of the laptop. At the time of the message, Joe Biden was vice president and his son held a lucrative position on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm. This raised concerns of a potential influence-peddling scheme.
The laptop, which was allegedly left at a repair shop in 2019 by its owner and never recovered, was indeed authentic. This has since been confirmed not only by the FBI but also by the media that previously insisted it was Russian disinformation.
Morris believes The New York Times was the most egregious of the corporate media bad actors, as it dismissed the laptop as "Russian disinformation" only to subtly confirm it years later in a story about Hunter Biden's taxes. Others believe NPR was the most ridiculous, as its managing editor stated, "We dont want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we dont want to waste the listeners and readers time on stories that are just pure distractions," when declaring the taxpayer-funded outlet wouldn't cover the laptop.
Media Research Center executive editor Tim Graham believes the laptop ordeal offered unwavering proof that the media is largely partisan. "Everything that's happened since the last election - the timid admission from some newspapers and networks in 2022 that the laptop was real, and the extremely slow and feckless federal prosecution of Hunter - only underline that the media values being reliable to the Democrats ahead of being reliable to the public," Graham told Fox News Digital.
In one of the most memorable media moments regarding the bombshell story, Trump appeared on CBS "60 Minutes" shortly after the story emerged and called the laptop "one of the biggest scandals" he had ever seen. However, interviewer Lesley Stahl insisted that there was no way to conclude the laptop, or its contents, were real. CBS News confirmed in 2022 via its own forensic investigation that the laptop and its contents were legitimate. This admission prompted many Trump allies to vilify "60 Minutes" and Stahl to this day.
The ordeal has continued to haunt "60 Minutes." The long-running CBS program recently suggested Trump wouldnt appear on the show for another interview without an apology regarding the Stahl interview. Graham believes "60 Minutes" should admit that Stahl was wrong when she insisted the laptop couldnt be verified. "CBS never followed up or apologized. Because they're shamelessly partisan," Graham said.
DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall believes the laptop ordeal is one of the reasons why news consumers around the nation have so little confidence in the media these days. "In retrospect, it is clear now that the establishment media tried to impact the 2020 election by consciously omitting coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story," McCall told Fox News Digital.
He noted that the "minimal coverage" it received focused on the former intelligence officials who falsely claimed the laptop was bogus. "So, we had the almost unbelievable situation in which the mainstream media dismissed something that was true, yet promoted something that was false. And these decisions were not just mistakes that can occasionally happen in journalism. They were intentional decisions to alter the public sphere for political purposes," McCall said.
Morris, who knew the laptop was authentic from the start when she broke the story, thinks many Americans still believe the debunked narratives. "There are Americans who are so propagandized by a media that is so corrupt I think that there are still some people who, unfortunately, never really got the memo," she said.
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