NPR CEO Katherine Maher admitted in Congress' testimony on Wednesday that her organization missed the mark due to no serious coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 election.
Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger were burned by newly formed House Republicans providing a subcommittee on Government Efficiency (DOGE) on accusations of biased news reporting backed by federal funding.
“I want to say that NPR is acknowledging that it's wrong to fail to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story more aggressively and quickly,” Maher told Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas.
She later reiterated that “we made a mistake” about not covering the laptop in another exchange with R-GA lawmakers. Maher was appointed CEO of NPR in 2024, so when the story first broke, he wasn't with the taxpayer-backed outlet.
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NPR CEO Katherine Maher admitted that in 2020 “we were wrong” by not actively covering the Hunter Biden laptop story. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The New York Post's bomb report on laptops was released in the heat of the 2020 election, when then-democratic candidate Joe Biden faced off against President Donald Trump. The story shed light on Hunter Biden's international business practices and the possibility of his father's involvement, with shocking videos and photos of drug use and boob acts on the laptop.
Many mainstream news outlets were lightly paraded on the narrative of the time, and even suggested that laptops were Russian disinformation so reliably. At the time, NPR public editor Kelly McBride addressed listeners' questions about the blackouts in news outlet coverage. She said the Post's report included “many many red flags” that included potential ties with Russia, and the claims within the story were insignificant.
“We don't want to waste time on stories that aren't actually stories. We don't want to waste listeners and readers' time on stories that are pure distractions.” “And frankly, it's just we've finished, and this is… a politically driven event, and we decided to treat it that way.”
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NPR famously said in response to the Hunter Biden laptop scandal that he “don't want to waste time on stories that aren't actually stories.” (Getty Images | New York Post)
In a stunning Tell essay released last April, then Veteran NPR editor Uri Berliner recalled his liberal colleague's attitude towards laptop revelation.
“The laptop was newsworthy, but the timeless, journalistic instinct to chase the leads of hot stories was suppressed,” Berliner wrote. “In a meeting with my colleagues, I said it was a good thing that one of NPR's best and most fair journalists didn't follow the laptop story because they could help Trump.”
“When the essential facts of reporting the post were confirmed and the email was independently verified about a year and a half later, we could have challenged our misjudgments. But like in Russia's conspiracy, we didn't make the harsh choice of transparency,” he continued.
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Longtime editor Uli Berliner surprised the media industry last year when he blew whit with NPR's liberal prejudice. (Fox News Digital/Getty Images)
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During the exchange with the cloud, Maher acknowledged the validity of the CIA's Wuhan Lab-Leak theory after NPR previously dismissed speculations about the origins of Covid Pandemic at the time.
Maher remained asserted that NPR was a “nonpartisan” news organization despite his hospitalization.
