NPR Deems Biden Laptop Saga a Nonstory a Week After Reporting on Rotten Twinkies
National Public Radio, which is partially funded with your tax dollars, explained Thursday why it was essentially ignoring the Biden family scandal, labeling the story a “waste” of time.
Terence Samuels, NPR managing editor for news, commented on the outlet’s silence regarding credible reports from the New York Post and others that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was heavily involved in his son Hunter’s lucrative international business activities.
“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,” Samuels said in a statement shared on the NPR Public Editor Twitter account.
“And quite frankly, that’s where we ended up, this was … a politically driven event and we decided to treat it that way,” he went on to say.
Why haven’t you seen any stories from NPR about the NY Post’s Hunter Biden story? Read more in this week’s newsletter➡️ https://t.co/CJesPgmGvo pic.twitter.com/jAi7PnpbZf
— NPR Public Editor (@NPRpubliceditor) October 22, 2020
In the linked newsletter, NPR Public Editor Kelly McBride said, “The handful of stories that NPR has produced about the NY Post investigation have been limited to how Facebook and Twitter are restricting distribution of the story or how families of those seeking treatment for addiction are impacted by the portrayal of Hunter Biden’s struggle.”
NPR’s media journalist published this analysis of the NYPost’s Hunter Biden story. More about why newsroom leaders decided not pursue more coverage in this week’s newsletter ➡️➡️https://t.co/CJesPgmGvohttps://t.co/cQiCGS9p7A
— NPR Public Editor (@NPRpubliceditor) October 22, 2020
Despite mounting evidence that Biden might have guided American foreign policy as vice president with his family’s financial interests in mind, the outlet’s editors have decided the bombshell scandal is “not really” a story.
On top of being disingenuous, the statement is an insult to journalism.
If the reporting about Joe and Hunter Biden is indeed true, the story is among the biggest political scandals in recent memory.
But NPR dismisses it, claiming to be committed to reporting only on “real” stories that are of vital interest to its readers.
However, while Samuel, McBride and NPR run obvious interference for the Biden campaign, the outlet has reported numerous stories that were “not really” stories.
NPR did seemingly endless reporting on the unsubstantiated and noncredible allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
It also zeroed in on the now-discredited narrative that President Donald Trump colluded with Russian operatives to win the 2016 election.
The fact that Trump was unfairly targeted by three years of baseless investigations from his opponents apparently never met the NPR standard for “a politically driven event.”
It’s insulting from an outlet that receives public funding by way of federal grants.
But the biggest insult of all from NPR, which has branded reporting of the contents of Hunter Biden’s reported laptop as being among “stories that are not really stories,” is an article from last week.
On Oct. 15, NPR published a 1,100-word report about a man who bit into a moldy Twinkie that had been sitting unopened for eight years.
ᵐᵘᵐᵐⁱᶠⁱᵉᵈ ᵗʷⁱⁿᵏⁱᵉ ᵐᵘᵐᵐⁱᶠⁱᵉᵈ ᵗʷⁱⁿᵏⁱᵉ ᵐᵘᵐᵐⁱᶠⁱᵉᵈ ᵗʷⁱⁿᵏⁱᵉ ᵐᵘ⁻https://t.co/Mxwihqp0Am
— NPR (@NPR) October 16, 2020
The outlet, in great detail, covered how some Twinkies can mummify after sitting for years.
The report was published a day after the Hunter Biden bombshell dropped.
In what is essentially state-funded censorship of a major political scandal, NPR has the audacity to tell us it can’t be bothered to report on mere “distractions.”
While the Post and a few other outlets were seeking the truth by engaging in real journalism, NPR was running interference for the Biden family by looking the other way and reporting about rotten stuffed snack cakes.
A week later, NPR told us our eyes deceived us. The Biden scandal is not a story, the outlet declared.
It has, like Big Tech, crossed a line from which it can never come back.
No objective consumer of NPR’s partisan reporting should forget that Terence Samuels and Kelly McBride stood against journalism and called stories of possible corruption in the White House a “distraction” with no evidence.
One would imagine that if Donald Trump Jr. had discarded a computer containing information that was damaging to his father’s presidential bid, NPR would find something other than Twinkies to report on.
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