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The best jobs in Washington are the ones in which you never have to admit error and apologize. These jobs are mostly in government and the major media. While "Love means never having to say you're sorry" (as a married man I know that's not true), messing up in government means one can blame others, or feign ignorance. Most recently we saw that reflected in Dr. Anthony Fauci's testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. Similarly, misreporting or censoring stories by news organizations never seem to get corrected. Now comes the Hunter Biden laptop that is serving as a powerful witness against the president's son in a Wilmington, Delaware, courtroom. During the 2020 debate between candidate Joe Biden and President Trump, Biden cited a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officers, including five former CIA directors, claiming the laptop had "all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation." The FBI finally blew that up when it admitted in court the laptop is real. The agency was in possession of the laptop since 2019. One post-election voter survey showed enough voters would have changed their vote from Biden to Trump and swayed the election had they known about the laptop and its contents. The New York Post practiced what used to be called journalism by exposing the claim by the 51 as a lie. Because the major media view the newspaper as a "conservative" publication, the Post's reporting was ignored. A quick trip down recent memory lane should remind the public how the major media frequently ignore stories that harm Democrats while promoting stories that harm Republicans. In the run-up to the 2020 election Twitter and Facebook refused to report the laptop story. Their excuse was that the FBI had warned them of a potential hack and leak operation targeting Hunter Biden, even though the agency knew it was real. In October 2022, a self-styled "opposition research group for the American people" published a 640-page report on the laptop that documents "459 crimes involving the Biden family and their associates." Read it for yourself@MarcoPolo501c3. It costs $45 but is worth it to read what was covered up by the major media. Reporters should get a copy, but probably won't because it would shame them for dereliction of their duties. The website says the report "provides evidence of Foreign Agents Registration Act violations, money laundering and tax fraud," all seemingly revealed on Hunter's laptop. It also claims it"exposes how federal law enforcement agencies influenced by politics, protect the Biden family from prosecution while targeting President Biden's primary election opponent, Donald Trump." These are the real stories, not the charge that Hunter lied about his drug use to obtain a gun permit. The major media and liberal cable news networks were unanimous in refusing to question the claims of the former intelligence agents. Typical was an interview of Hunter Biden by CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Tracy Smith, who called the assertions against Hunter "rumors," while failing to enumerate hardly any of the allegations swirling around Hunter and his family. In January when the Justice Department finally acknowledged the laptop was genuine, the three broadcast networks, which had previously hyped the falsehoods, declined to carry the story. Neither did they correct their previous misreporting or apologize for getting it wrong. It's revealing that so many talking heads on the TV networks sounded alike. The Media Research Center has put together a video compilation. I've cited before a 2022 Gallup Poll which revealed trust in the media is at a near record low. They won't do anything to elevate the trust level because they are prisoners of their own ideology and there are fewer real journalists today who cover the news without fear or favor.
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Cal Thomas, America's most-syndicated columnist, is the author of 10 books.