#Media outlets should own up to Hunter Biden scandal

So Hunter Biden admits that the laptop The Post reported on “certainly” could be his; he just doesn’t remember dropping it off for repair. The question now is whether the liberal media will admit that it’s real, examine its contents or take a look at their practices. 

They could start by no longer booking or interviewing John Brennan, former director of the CIA and tinfoil-hat-wearing crank. Brennan was one of 50 former intelligence officials, mostly under Democratic presidents, who signed a letter saying that the Hunter story “has all the classic earmarks of Russian disinformation.” Of course, they had no proof of this and didn’t bother to even examine the contents, but crying, “Russia!” is a good way to dupe the media these days. We single out Brennan because no one has cried wolf more in the past five years, as he’s spun conspiracy theories that would make QAnon blush. Yet he’s still trotted out on CNN no matter how many times he’s wrong. 

While we’re at it, will Politico (and other outlets) correct their coverage of this letter? “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say,” Politico’s headline says, which isn’t even what the letter said. It could be disinformation, the officials wrote — and now we know it isn’t. 

NPR famously told its listeners, “We don’t waste time on stories that aren’t stories.” How inconvenient for them that this continues to be a story. Of course, NPR isn’t shamed — just last week, it had to correct a Hunter Biden book review when the author claimed, falsely, that US intelligence said the laptop story was “discredited.” 

Or how about the cottage industry of “fact checkers?” Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post waved away our reporting with “Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop,” and later tweeted dismissively about “the laptop stuff.” Any new “fact checks” on the way? 

We don’t think there will be. The election safely in the rearview mirror, Twitter now says banning The Post’s account for two weeks was “a total mistake.” But the rest of the media still has no interest in asking any probing questions of Hunter Biden, even as he promotes a self-serving memoir. 

They wanted Joe Biden elected, and they don’t want to hurt him now.