Brian Stelter was a former CNN host and defended media coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story that was suppressed in 2020.
Stelter was Friday’s guest host of Fourth Watch Podcast. Steve Krakauer, Fourth Watch media critic, was interviewed by Stelter. Krakauer hosts the podcast and is also the author of “Uncovered”, How the Media became cozy with power, abandoned its principles and lost the people.
The discussion centered on the current state of media distrust and the recent media mismanagement. Krakauer pointed out the lack of coverage news organizations gave Hunter Biden’s story in New York Post to illustrate how media can fail. He also pointed out that Twitter was at the time prominently suppressing the report.
Krakauer suggested that media were reluctant to pay attention to the laptop because of the “scars”, which started in 2016, when Hillary Clinton’s email scandal was so prominent. This was a key factor in her defeat to Donald Trump.
Krakauer said, “It is one to try and tiptoe in this story. It’s another thing to treat it as a toxic substance that totally spins people in a very wrong way. ”
Stelter acknowledged that Twitter could have “screwed-up” in censoring Stelter’s laptop story. We should continue to follow Twitter. However, he did defend the manner in which CNN and other media outlets dealt with the Biden scandal.
“I think newsrooms looked around, and decided that the laptop wasn’t there. Stelter stated that no evidence is available to support this claim.
“A lot of the lies about 2020 are similar to this: They claim that all these a—s called it deception and they all said it. Stelter stated that many of us wondered and suggested that it could be. However, there was concern because of the Russian attempt in 2016 to take control.
Krakauer replied by citing an ex-intel official’s famous letter claiming that Hunter Biden emails shared by the Post contained “classic earmarks of a Russian intelligence operations.” Krakauer said that this was “essentially telling Americans it was disinformation.” He also criticised the media’s double-standard approach to the Russia investigation. He stated that one anonymously-sourced story about the Mueller probe from The New York Times or The Washington Post would fuel a whole news cycle, but not the Hunter Biden article.
Former host of “Reliable sources” attempted to separate the two by claiming that there were many problems with the New York Post’s reporting. The author of Uncovered acknowledged there were “red flags.” ”
It was not mentioned in the exchange between Stelter & Krakauer that CNN’s top brass were captured on tape spiking a laptop story just after the New York Post published their bombshell reporting.
CNN and The New York Times were some of the news outlets that confirmed Hunter Biden’s authenticity before Joe Biden was elected President.
Stelter suggested that CNN viewers believed the controversy was a fake scandal being propagated by the far right.
Stelter told his viewers that there was too much information about the story in October 2020. This is an example right-wing media.
Stelter was virtually unrecognizable two years later.
Federal investigation is underway for Hunter. You can bring charges at any time. This is not a right-wing media story. Stelter said that it is a problem for Bidens to have a guest in August 2022.
This was also Stelter’s final broadcast, as he was fired by Chris Licht, the new CNN boss. “Reliable Sources,” was also canceled.
