CNN’s media reporter Brian Stelter appeared to answer my question from a couple days ago on whether the media would bury that scandal involving Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell. The answer is now clearly yes. Indeed, Stelter was critical of coverage on Fox as excessive on the Biden scandal as his network continues to downplay or bury both the Biden and the Swalwell stories. To cover the Biden story would expose CNN’s own failure to honestly report a major story before the election in order to protect Biden. This is scandal that not only raises the possible criminal prosecution of the son of the incoming president but involves emails and evidence that directly contradict Joe Biden’s past denials of knowledge or involvement. Stelter however views the problem as covering the story too much. It seems that it is not Biden controlling the media but the media simply controlling its “portions.”
CNN has been hammered for its bias in burying or downplaying these stories. Recently, CNN was hit with a secretly taped recording of President Jeff Zucker telling CNN personnel to hit Trump even harder and CNN host Jake Tapper is heard complaining that the “rightwing is going crazy” on the Hunter Biden story. Recently, CNN analyst April Ryan lashed out at reporters using an embarrassing recording of Joe Biden and suggested that the confidential source should be identified.
This is the network that exhaustively ran every allegation against President Trump and his family, including a long line of false stories connected to the Russian collusion theory. Yet, Stelter is now declaring that the coverage of the Biden story is simply too much: “Journalism is all about proportionality, and Fox has a big problem with portion control.” There was no portion control problem in CNN covering Russian collusion stories that were later debunked. There is no concern about the virtual blackout on coverage of a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee who reportedly was seduced by a Chinese intelligence agent. There is no problem on the blackout on the Hunter Biden. I supposed the best portion control is no portions at all.
-- Jonathan Turley, "'Portion Control': CNN's Stelter Slams Coverage of Hunter Biden Scandal As CNN Buries Both The Biden And Swalwell Stories" (JONATHANTURLEY.ORG).
