(Editor's note: This article was published first at Wirepoints)
Traditional media beclowned itself last week at a Chicago conference on “disinformation.” That’s a story in itself, but the bigger story is how they covered up even that story, peddling disinformation about a conference on disinformation. The guilty include Illinois media, which is further guilty of still suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story that is part of what sparked the fireworks at the conference.
We will describe the most interesting high points from the conference, but first understand that those high points were entirely suppressed by regular media. Articles about the conference in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, WGN, and Crain’s simply ignored the story. Instead, they fawned over comments made by Barack Obama, who was also a panelist.
Alternate news sources, by contrast, were all over the real highlights, as was social media, where video clips of the fireworks garnered millions of views. Stories about what really happened at the conference that you won’t find in corporate media include those in RealClear, The Federalist, The Daily Wire, Daily Caller, New York Post, Washington Examiner, The College Fix, Townhall, RedState, American Greatness.
So, this is a story about alternate realities. Decide for yourself which one is right.
Wasn’t the original event farcical enough? Sponsored by The Atlantic and the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. It purported to be about “disinformation and the erosion of democracy.”
Moderated by Democratic strategist David Axelrod, headline panelists included The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and CNN’s Brian Stelter. Yes, that Brian Stelter.
It was therefore only in Q&A that things got interesting, but ignored by regular media. Credit a few intrepid students. A University of Chicago freshman asked Applebaum about Hunter Biden’s laptop. “So, in 2020, you wrote ‘those outside the Fox News bubble do not, of course, need to learn any of the stuff about Hunter Biden,’ referring to his laptop, of course,” he said. “A poll later found out that if voters knew about the contents of the laptop, 16% of Joe Biden voters would’ve acted differently. Of course, we know a few weeks ago The New York Times confirmed that the content is real.”
“Do you think the media acted inappropriately when they instantly dismissed Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation and what can we learn from that in ensuring that what we label as disinformation is truly disinformation and not reality?” he asked.
Applebaum’s answer: “My problem with Hunter Biden’s laptop I think is totally irrelevant,” she 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.”
Is that not smuggery personified? If you don’t know that the laptop is “relevant” and “interesting,” all I can suggest is that you go beyond mainstream media and read about it. And stay tuned because indictments are coming. President Biden himself is in this up to his neck. It is rapidly evolving into one of the biggest scandals in American history.
Another student asked Stelter the obvious:
You’ve all spoken extensively about Fox News being a purveyor of disinformation, but CNN is right up there with them. They pushed the Russian collusion hoax, they pushed the Jussie Smollet hoax. They smeared Justice Kavanaugh as a rapist and they also smeared Nick Sandmann as a white supremacist. And yes, they dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop affair as pure “Russian disinformation.” With mainstream corporate journalists becoming little more than apologists and cheerleaders for the regime, is it time to finally declare that the canon of journalistic ethics is dead, or no longer operative? 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?
Stelter gave a lengthy non-answer, dismissing charges against CNN as “a popular right-wing narrative.” I think my honest answer to you […] is that I think you’re describing a different channel than the one that I watch. But I understand that that is a popular right-wing narrative about CNN,” said Stelter.
Barack Obama was a panelist, too. He used the appearance as an opportunity to “rewrite history,” as the Wall Street Journal put it, about his policies toward Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
And Obama offered what was perhaps the single most telling comment about establishment views on disinformation. “It is difficult for me to see how we win the contest of ideas if, in fact, we are not able to agree on a baseline of facts that allow the marketplace of ideas to work,” he said. In other words, facts are what he says they are. All else is disinformation.
Another student asked Sen. Klobuchar, “If I were to say there are only two sexes – male and female – would that be considered misinformation that you think should be banned speech on social media platforms?” With a laugh, Klobuchar answered, “I am not going to get into what misinformation,” and changed the subject to something else.
Clips of those exchanges were already roaring on social media by the end of the conference.
So, in response, The Atlantic’s Editor Jeffey Goldberg offered this closing remark. “I think one darkly humorous but inevitable measurement of our success is that our disinformation conference has been the subject of disinformation campaigns on social media already.”
That’s routine for today’s radical left. Just say “disinformation” or “right wing” in response to any competing viewpoint. That’s the extent of their analysis. And you’d hope they’d know better than to punch down at students.
The students who asked the questions were from The Chicago Thinker, a student publication at the U of C. It’s a golden ray of hope in higher education. Their tagline is “Outthink the mob.” They do that splendidly but, as this episode showed, getting the mob to report on itself is a different matter.
The most serious loose end from the conference, from an Illinois perspective, is about that Hunter Biden laptop. Even the New York Times and Washington Post have belatedly admitted that it and the damning emails in it are authentic. However, I can find no mention about its authenticity or recently released content in any Illinois paper. Much of Illinois media however, did print earlier stories saying or alleging that the laptop was a fake, planted by Russians. They’ve let a huge but solidly disproven conspiracy theory live on.