CNN’s new CEO Chris Licht has vowed to restore integrity back to the outlet. But CNN’s latest article on the Hunter Biden laptop saga shows the network is unable to step away from their gentle shilling to report the straight facts.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk released the so-called “Twitter Files” on Friday afternoon that detail how Twitter suppressed the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop just weeks away from the election. The Daily Caller News Foundation originally verified the authenticity of the laptop.
While most of the details released Friday are not necessarily a shock for some who have followed the story since the beginning, CNN is taking things at a different pace, having previously admitted the “media world has largely ignored the Post’s Hunter Biden story.”
CNN’s version of the “Twitter Files” details how Twitter employees were wrestling with their integrity and standards when it came to dealing with material that they were being pressured to remove. (RELATED: Former FBI Lawyer Who Approved FISA Warrant To Spy On Trump Helped Censor Hunter Biden Laptop Story)
“Twitter employees grappled with fears that it could have been the result of a Russian hacking operation,” CNN wrote, claiming employees struggled with whether the story should be restricted under the “hacked materials policy.”
But here’s the thing. The “Twitter Files” revealed Biden campaign officials worked closely to remove and censor the story, undermining CNN’s narrative that the debacle at Twitter was solely because of policy restrictions. CNN also failed to disclose to readers that the FBI had obtained the laptop in 2019 and were aware that the Post’s coverage was not based off a “hacking” attempt.
CNN does not mention either of those facts. Nor do they refute the claim that the materials were hacked.
In fact, CNN wants you to think it’s crazy to call what happened “censorship.”
Chief Business correspondent Christine Romans said Monday that “what some want you to think is that this was censorship by Big Tech … but what [the Twitter Files] sort of shows is a real struggle at an important platform for how to deal with something so outrageous, so explosive, and what to actually do with it.”
The only thing more “explosive” than the contents of the laptop itself was the coordinated cover-up by corporate media and Big Tech. Corporate media’s use of phrases like “real struggle” allow Twitter executives and corporate outlets to defend their decision to minimize or avoid coverage by feigning trepidation of how to handle the information.
When the story initially broke, talking heads, like Brian Stelter, were quick to label it “Russian disinformation” and a “manufactured scandal.”
“We are not talking about fully reliable sources here,” Stelter said. “This is a classic example of the right-wing media machine. Fox and Trump have this in common: they want you to stay mad and stay tuned.”
CNN also released an article calling the NYP story “dubious” and alleged the materials were hacked and more importantly denied by a “credible former Joe Biden staffer and the Biden campaign.” The “Twitter Files” later revealed the campaign colluded with Twitter executives to suppress the same story. But, hey, CNN received “credible” word.
The article also claimed that because the “source of the story is truly bizarre” it loses credence.
The corporate media coverage of the “Twitter Files,” along with their abysmal coverage of the initial story, was and is a dereliction of journalistic duties. CNN had an opportunity to give this story fair and accurate coverage on the second go-around but chose not to. Chris Licht, wherever you are, bring the hammer down.