Take Cockburn’s hand and let him whisk you back to the halcyon days of fall 2020. The presidential campaign was in full swing and the New York Post had just gotten its hands on a scoop: Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, had left his laptop at a repair shop in Delaware. On its hard drive was a treasure trove of damning emails and pictures, including one that appeared to show Hunter passed out in bed with a crack pipe in his mouth.
The Post published its story, the Biden campaign yelped, and the establishment duly lost its mind. The Post‘s Twitter account was suspended. And perhaps most damningly, fifty-one intelligence “experts” signed a letter warning that the laptop story could be Russian disinformation.
In fairness, the intel geniuses didn’t claim that Russian involvement was a “slam dunk,” if Cockburn can borrow a phrase. But they did say their experience had made them “deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”
Fast-forward to this week and the New York Times quietly confirmed what its cross-town competitor knew all along: the laptop was real. This led the Post to take a much-deserved victory lap. It also led them to reach out to every single one of the slanderous spooks and ask whether they wanted to apologize.
Count Cockburn as unsurprised that not a single one of them did. According to today’s front-page Post article, the vast majority either declined comment or never returned the Post‘s calls. Among the few who did respond was practiced liar James Clapper, who declared: “Yes, I stand by the statement made AT THE TIME, and would call attention to its fifth paragraph. I think sounding such a cautionary note AT THE TIME was appropriate.”
For sheer gumption, though, you can’t beat someone called Don Hepburn, who is the president of something called Boanerges Solutions LLC:
My position has not changed any. I believe the Russians made a huge effort to alter the course of the election… The Russians are masters of blending truth and fiction and making something feel incredibly real when it’s not. Nothing I have seen really changes my opinion. I can’t tell you what part is real and what part is fake, but the thesis still stands for me, that it was a media influence hit job.
The laptop scoop might have been accurate information but it was also Russian disinformation. Or something.
Cockburn can’t help but notice that it’s Hepburn’s doublespeak, not the Post‘s reporting, that sounds straight out of KGB central casting. But then the Post may have had its revenge. “SPIES WHO LIE,” proclaims its latest front-page cover, with pictures of several of the letter’s signatories.
This front cover of The New York Post should be stapled to EVERY tree, pole, gas pumps, store fronts, fences, soda cans, beer cans, liquor bottles, milk cartons, bread bags, and billboards throughout America.
TRUTH. MATTERS.
EXPOSE. THEM. pic.twitter.com/IU6NypzdH0— 🌹🍀 DebraLee 🍀🌹 (@DebraLee_1234) March 19, 2022
