National Public Radio’s public editor said he was “deeply displeased” that big tech companies were “censoring” the Post’s coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop, but did not agree to cover the story. By refusing, he gave his own broadcasting station a free pass.
Kelly McBride, NPR’s ombudsman since 2020, told The Wrap that tech companies like Company X and Facebook prevented users from sharing links to the Post’s revelations about laptops. He said he was wrong and that the hard drive contained emails linking the Biden family to the Ukrainians. businessman.
“I was really uncomfortable with the censorship being done by tech companies,” McBride said. “Who will be the arbiter of truth?”
Kelly McBride has been NPR’s ombudsman since 2020. Provided by: Poynter Institute
Uli Berliner, who left NPR in April after publishing an essay criticizing the agency for its left-wing bias, accused his former employer of ignoring the laptop incident.
Still, McBride, now a senior vice president at the Poynter Institute, said his problem is less with how NPR reported the story than with the fact that tech companies blocked people from reading it. he told The Wrap.
“I understand that (tech companies) are trying to curb the spread of information that they determine is false or distorted. I understand that,” McBride said.
“But in this case, I don’t think they had due process in place to determine whether this information was distorted.”
At the time, NPR also declined to report on the laptop incident. Terrence Samuels, NPR’s editor-in-chief at the time, said the station “didn’t want to waste time on stories that weren’t really stories.”
McBride said NPR was unable to properly report on the laptop because the Post “did not release the entire laptop.” She also accused the Post of “embarrassing and humiliating” Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden’s laptop contained an email in which he offered to introduce his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a Ukrainian businessman. AFP via Getty Images National Public Radio’s editor criticized tech companies for censoring an article about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Getty Images
“That’s not the kind of journalism that NPR does, and it’s not the kind of story that NPR viewers are interested in,” McBride said.
McBride also denied that NPR’s left-leaning leanings were a reason for his refusal to report on it.
“It wasn’t political in nature, it was tabloid in nature,” she argued. “It was a tabloid article.”
The Post reported on the laptop on October 14, 2020.
McBride’s comments come on the fourth anniversary of the Post’s exclusive report that Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to executives at a Ukrainian energy company.
The introduction comes as Joe Biden pressures Ukrainian government officials to fire prosecutors investigating Burisma, which was paying Hunter Biden up to $50,000 a month for directorships. I put it on.
The Post’s reporting was based on a laptop that was left at a repair shop in Delaware and was never recovered. The computer was turned over to the FBI by the store’s owner, and a copy of the hard drive was obtained by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was serving as President Donald Trump’s lawyer at the time.
Jack Dorsey, then CEO of the company then known as Twitter, said it was wrong to censor the article. Ron Sachs – CNP
Numerous former intelligence officials denounced the laptop as “Russian disinformation,” but forensic analysis revealed that the contents of the laptop were genuine.
But X, then known as Twitter, and Facebook banned users from sharing links to the Post’s reporting.
The social media company said it censored the article over concerns it was obtained through hacking.
Forensic analysis proved the laptop and its contents to be authentic. scale
Other news organizations also declined to report on the laptop, citing doubts about its authenticity.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and then-CEO, later expressed regret for not allowing users to share links to articles. .
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told podcaster Joe Rogan in 2022 that Facebook had received complaints from the FBI about possible foreign interference ahead of the 2020 presidential election. He said he restricted the distribution of the article in response to the warning.
