CNN’s Brian Stelter refrained from mentioning The Atlantic journalist Anne Applebaum’s Thursday remarks on Hunter Biden’s laptop story being “totally irrelevant” while interviewing her Sunday.
Applebaum dismissed a question about the laptop when asked by University of Chicago freshman Daniel Schmidt at the “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy” conference Thursday. The student asked if the media acted “inappropriately” by dismissing the reports surrounding the younger Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation.
“My problem with Hunter Biden’s laptop I think is totally irrelevant,” Applebaum said. “I mean, it’s not whether it’s disinformation or, I mean, I didn’t think that Hunter Biden’s business relationships have anything to do with who should be president of the United States, so I don’t find it to be interesting, that would be my problem with that as a main news story.”
During her Sunday appearance on “Reliable Sources,” Stelter did not mention or raise any issue with her previous statement. Instead, he gathered her insight on the Russian media’s spread of disinformation and propaganda.
Another freshman, Christopher Phillips, pressed Stelter on CNN reporting disinformation, including the smears against former Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann, the accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Biden’s laptop at the conference Thursday. (RELATED: ‘Had It Wrong’: Chris Christie Calls Out The New York Times And The Washington Post Over Misreporting Hunter Biden’s Laptop)
“With mainstream corporate journalists becoming little more than apologists and cheerleaders for the regime, is it time to finally declare the canon of journalist ethics is dead or no longer operative?” Phillips asked. “All the mistakes of the mainstream media, and CNN in particular, seem to magically all go in one direction, are we expected to believe that this is all just some sort of random coincidence or is there something else behind it?”
A University of Chicago student called out CNN and Brian Stelter for all their lies. This is phenomenal. Enjoy: pic.twitter.com/zfLKgbaY0q
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 7, 2022
“Too bad it’s time for lunch,” Stelter joked. “I think my honest answer to you, and I’ll come over and talk in more detail after this, is that I think you’re describing a different channel than the one that I watch,” Stelter said. “But I understand that it is a popular right-wing narrative about CNN.”
“I think it’s important when we talk about a shared reality in democracy, all these networks, all these news outlets, have to defend democracy. And when they screw up, admit it,” he continued.
The New York Times and the Washington Post recently confirmed the authenticity of Biden’s laptop in pieces detailing possible criminal charges against the president’s son and his business dealings with Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy, where he and his uncle, James, received $4.8 million from its founder, Ye Jianming.
The media downplayed the reports since the allegations arose from a 2020 Senate report to the extent of it being dubbed as “Russian disinformation.” The New York Post, who initially reported on the laptop during the 2020 presidential race, had their Twitter account locked for seven days after publishing the information on the platform.