In October 2020 when news of Hunter Biden's infamous laptop broke, which contained salacious details about his close business partnership with his father Joe Biden, National Public Radio quickly worked to bury the story. In fact, the outlet issued a lengthy explanation about why the laptop was a "non-story" and "waste of time," despite receiving millions of dollars in taxpayer funding each year through as series of federal grants.
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
Now, thanks to Elon Musk, we know exactly why NPR refused to cover the story. They knew it was coming and planned damage control with the FBI.
31. The organizer was Vivian Schiller, the fmr CEO of NPR, fmr head of news at Twitter; fmr Gen. mgr of NY Times; fmr Chief Digital Officer of NBC News
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
Attendees included Meta/FB's head of security policy and the top nat. sec. reporters for @nytimes @wapo and others pic.twitter.com/3yO5ZIc2Jy
Making matters worse, the FBI was using taxpayer dollars to pay media outlets to censor the story. After the story was wiped from Twitter and the vast majority of media outlets, with bans issued on accounts that shared the original New York Post reporting, executives sent the FBI a note of thanks for their work. The gratitude was spearheaded by former FBI attorney James Baker, who was working as Twitter counsel until last month. During his time at the FBI, Baker was behind the infamous Steele Dossier and the false Russia collusion narrative used against President Donald Trump.
Other social media companies too, not just Twitter https://t.co/vH2EnMr9Iw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2022
46. The FBI’s influence campaign may have been helped by the fact that it was paying Twitter millions of dollars for its staff time.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
“I am happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!” reports an associate of Jim Baker in early 2021. pic.twitter.com/SmNse97QxK
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