Publicly-funded NPR launched a disinformation reporting team Friday, only to be met by total annihilation by conservatives.
“Perhaps the NPR Disinformation Team will begin its work by examining NPR,” one reporter Tweeted, sharing a statement from NPR’s Managing Editor for News, Terence Sanders, regarding the Hunter Biden laptop story the outlet chose to ignore.
“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,” Sanders said of the New York Post’s report of Hunter Biden’s laptop. (RELATED: ‘Pedo Pete’: Massive 4Chan Hack Of Hunter Biden’s Explicit Texts, Images, Videos Rocks The Internet)
NPR better be very careful with this disinformation team. If it has a Hunter laptop type foul up it will be the most powerful ammunition the GOP has ever had to defund it. https://t.co/kFBr5TtkXo
— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) July 17, 2022
Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert echoed the reporter’s sentiment, arguing that “NPR deliberately covered up the Hunter Biden laptop story by labeling it a distraction.” Other public figures online, like columnist and author David Marcus warned that “NPR better be very careful with this disinformation team. If it has a Hunter laptop type foul up it will be the most powerful ammunition the GOP has ever had to defund it.”
“NPR disinformation reporter reacts to thousands of people sharing false and misleading NPR headlines: Don’t apologize for lying. Don’t issue corrections. Just ignore it until it goes away,” Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ spokeswoman, Christina Pushaw, shared on Twitter, tagging an NPR reporter.
Hey — let’s start with this one! pic.twitter.com/hGoLew3exI
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) July 16, 2022
“One government-funded agency shuts down its disinformation board, another sets one up,” joked Heritage communications’ John Cooper. “Don’t you think you’re putting out enough of it already?” Center of Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian commented.
Overall, most of the responses to NPR’s disinformation board focused on two things: Hunter Biden’s laptop and overall ignorance of the truth. New York Post politics and culture writer Jon Levine jumped on the bandwagon, telling NPR the board should start with the laptop story. Even the New York Times have conceded the laptop’s authenticity, but NPR has yet to report significantly on the notorious story.