When National Public Radio (NPR) listener Carolyn Abbott asked why the taxpayer funded news outlet wasn’t covering the growing scandal involving Joe Biden and his son Hunter, NPR’s public editor Kelly McBride said there were “many, many red flags” in the New York Post investigation, and thus the story did not merit coverage.
Asked Abbott:
Someone please explain why NPR has apparently not reported on the Joe Biden, Hunter Biden story in the last week or so that Joe did know about Hunter’s business connections in Europe that Joe had previously denied having knowledge?
McBride referred her and other listeners curious about NPR’s blackout of the growing scandal to comments by NPR Managing Editor Terence Samuel, who concluded, “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. And, quite frankly, that’s where we ended up. This was … a politically driven event and we decided to treat it that way.”
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NPR noted those “many, many red flags”:
- The e-mails contained on Hunter’s laptop “have not been verified as authentic”;
- The computer is “assumed — but not proven — to have belonged to the younger Biden”;
- The e-mails “were said to have been given to the [New York] Post by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani who is known for making discredited claims about the Bidens”;
- The Post “is owned by Rupert Murdoch, a steady supporter of the president”;
- The Post’s reporter “was a former producer for Sean Hannity, Trump’s best friend on his favorite news network, Fox News, also controlled by the Murdochs”;
- The story “serves up no proof. It rests upon an email, supposedly from a Ukrainian businessman to the younger Biden, thanking him for ‘an opportunity to meet your father’”; and
- The Biden campaign “reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.”
Consequently, said NPR, “None of that sound and fury requires the rest of the press to accept those claims as true. They shouldn’t. Not without additional reporting and verification.”
But, what if all of those claims — those “red flags” — are true after all? Will NPR be prepared to issue an apology and give the story the coverage that it deserves?
The editors at National Review think the story has merit:
There is more and more reason to credit the veracity of those emails, or at a minimum, suggest that they warrant more thorough investigation.
We have what appears to be a signed receipt from the computer-repair shop in Delaware, demonstrating that Hunter’s laptop and hard drive were obtained legally.
We know that the laptop in question is being held in connection to an FBI money-laundering investigation. The director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, says that the emails in question aren’t part of a Russian disinformation campaign and the FBI hasn’t contradicted him.
There’s enough there to merit the attention of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is investigating Hunter’s e-mails.
And then there’s the remarkable testimony from a former Hunter Biden business associate whose e-mail address appeared on at least one of those e-mails. Tony Bobulinski publicly testified Wednesday night, “I could no longer allow my family’s name to be associated or tied to Russian disinformation or implied lies and false narratives dominating the media right now.”
He testified:
I am the grandson of a 37 year Army Intelligence officer, the son of a 20+ year career Naval Officer and the brother of a 28 year career Naval Flight Officer. I myself served our country for 4 years and left the Navy as LT Bobulinski.
I held a high level security clearance and was an instructor and then CTO for Naval Nuclear Power Training Command. I take great pride in the time my family and I served this country. I am also not a political person. What few campaign contributions I have made in my life were to Democrats….
After leaving the military I became an institutional investor investing extensively around the world and on every continent. I have traveled to over 50 countries. I believe, hands down, we live in the greatest country in the world.
What I am outlining is fact. I know it is fact because I lived it. I am the CEO of Sinohawk Holdings which was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family. I was brought into the company to be the CEO by James Gilliar and Hunter Biden. The reference to “the Big Guy” in the much publicized May 13, 2017 email is in fact a reference to Joe Biden. The other “JB” referenced in that email is Jim Biden, Joe’s brother.
Hunter Biden called his dad “the Big Guy” or “my Chairman,” and frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals that we were discussing. I’ve seen Vice President Biden saying he never talked to Hunter about his business. I’ve seen firsthand that that’s not true, because it wasn’t just Hunter’s business, they said they were putting the Biden family name and its legacy on the line.
I realized the Chinese were not really focused on a healthy financial ROI. They were looking at this as a political or influence investment.
Once I realized that Hunter wanted to use the company as his personal piggy bank by just taking money out of it as soon as it came from the Chinese, I took steps to prevent that from happening….
He ended his testimony with this:
I don’t have a political ax to grind; I just saw behind the Biden curtain and I grew concerned with what I saw. The Biden family aggressively leveraged the Biden family name to make millions of dollars from foreign entities even though some were from communist controlled China.
If Bobulinski’s claims prove to be true, will NPR issue an apology to its listeners and readers and begin covering the story?
