Smerconish and were pressed on their lack of coverage for the Hunter Biden story prior to the 2020 election.
“[There’s a] controversy that you may think is bullsh*t,” Smerconish
said. “Let me give you an example. I believe — they know this, because I
talked about it on air. I think that the Hunter laptop was worthy of
more airing than it received right before the election. Either of you
agree with me on that? Do you regret? How about — if I ask you this way,
specifically, do you regret not dealing with it before the election?”
“What do you think?” Smerconish asked ex-MSNBC chief Phil Griffin.
“He
was never arrested,” Griffin said. “The Justice Department was looking
into it, never reported it until he is the son of a candidate. I don’t
think it’s a main story until that happens. Now, we looked into it. You
know, NBC News did, Tom Winter and Ken Dilanian did a great job. They
met with Rudy. He brought a couple of pages printed out from the
so-called, from the — from the computer. They asked for a digital copy
of it. They didn’t get it. But I don’t think it was a big story before
the election because he was never found — he was never charged.”
“And
Michael, let me ask you, in the two weeks before the election, when
that came out, I don’t know the exact timing —” Zucker added.
One of the New York Post reporters that helped break the story, Emma-Jo
Morris, now at Breitbart News, remarked on the executives’ feigned
innocence in squelching the story prior to the election.
“This time two years ago today, all social media platforms in unison
banned the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop from
hell,” she noted. “Let’s check in on what CNN and MS have learned.”
Not
much, sadly. These excuses would not fly with journalists or the
broader American audience if damning evidence of illicit foreign
transactions were found to be tied to Donald Trump Jr., raising
questions about his presidential father’s potential knowledge and
benefit." TP
