Hunter Biden’s laptop: the burying of a scandal
Mainstream media accused of only certifying facts which align with own preferred narrative

It had all the makings of a bombshell “October Surprise”, said Gerard Baker in The Wall Street Journal. Just three weeks before the 2020 presidential election, the New York Post reported the discovery of a laptop belonging to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, in a repair shop in Delaware, which contained “all sorts of embarrassing emails”. They suggested he had been “selling his high-level family connections” while working for a Ukrainian energy firm, possibly even securing a cut for his father.
It should have been a huge story – it could have swung the election – but it died a death after the mainstream press and the tech firms dismissed it as Russian disinformation. It was nothing of the sort. Last week, The New York Times finally conceded the emails were authentic.
In fairness, journalists had every reason to be wary, said Philip Bump in The Washington Post. At the time the Rupert Murdoch-owned Post ran the report, Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, had spent months openly digging for “dirt” on Hunter Biden. The Post refused to let other media organisations examine hard drives from the laptop, and no one could explain why the owner of the repair shop had ended up giving the laptop to Giuliani. Given Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, the mainstream media understandably responded with suspicion.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Be honest, said Jacob Siegel on Tablet Magazine: this is about partisanship, pure and simple. Over the past five years, the mainstream media have made a show of deferring to a new “cadre of fact-checkers” who supposedly ensure their strict objectivity. Yet when push comes to shove, they’re only interested in certifying facts that align with their own preferred narrative.
People were far too eager to dismiss this story, agreed Ben Weingarten in Newsweek. More than 50 former intelligence officials signed a letter publicly stating their belief that it bore “all the classic hallmarks of a Russian information operation”. They’ve shown no remorse for their misleading intervention.
As for The New York Times, the only reason it has come clean now is that it has become impossible to report on the federal investigation into Hunter Biden – which could lead to him facing charges for violating foreign lobbying and money-laundering laws – without mentioning the laptop. This is a truly shocking case, and the mainstream media must face a “reckoning”.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Pregnancy in America
Feature Why is it getting riskier to give birth in the U.S.?
-
The potential warning sign of an auto lender’s bankruptcy
In the Spotlight Tricolor collapse an ‘extreme example’ of economy’s challenges
-
RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine crusade comes under fire
Feature Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a heated hearing as senators accused him of lying and spreading chaos
-
Pregnancy in America
Feature Why is it getting riskier to give birth in the U.S.?
-
RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine crusade comes under fire
Feature Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a heated hearing as senators accused him of lying and spreading chaos
-
Venezuela: Was Trump’s air strike legal?
Feature A Trump-ordered airstrike targeted a speedboat off the coast of Venezuela, killing all 11 passengers on board
-
Angela Rayner: the rise and fall of a Labour stalwart
In the Spotlight Deputy prime minister resigned after she underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty
-
‘We must empower young athletes with the knowledge to stay safe’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
How Benjamin Netanyahu shaped Israel in his own image
The Explainer He has seldom been personally popular, but ‘King Bibi’ is an exceptionally shrewd operator
-
Kim Jong Un’s triumph: the rise and rise of North Korea’s dictator
In the Spotlight North Korean leader has strengthened ties with Russia and China, and recently revealed his ‘respected child’ to the world