To The Reader’s Forum:

Today’s P-J had an opinion piece that put the “media” on what I’ll call a “hit list” over their alleged failure to give prominence to “Hunter Biden’s laptop” and alleged FBI interference in the 2020 election. Thus, the “media” should be perceived to be a “threat”.

So, what is the hoopla about? It’s about the factual nature of the laptop and not what information the laptop contained and, therefore, the impact. The writer admits so much by lamenting that “the news media shows little or no interest” in what the laptop COULD represent.

Comparing the laptop issue with former president Trump’s allegations (note that Trump is not good with the truth – he supposedly “won” the 2020 election – in the first place), even if the FBI had the laptop, it is now in possession of people who believe it is a big issue, but they have yet to get a media “scoop” on the contents – even from FOX News and other “right-wing” sources. “Scooping” Trump was as easy as pie since most of the reports came from inside his administration. Thus, the “media” was, essentially, spoon fed reports on Trump that didn’t (still don’t) require in-depth analysis – those reports generally have multiple sources. Why haven’t “right-wing” media sources analyzed the actual data, or even analyzed data provided by “experts”? Well, perhaps they can’t.

As to the premise of the opinion, “Americans Think Media Is A Threat”, I tend to agree, but NOT because of “media” disinterest in “Hunter’s laptop”. Rather because of comments in another opinion piece which states, “Too many news professionals duck the idea of making…judgment calls in deference to some largely mythical beast called ‘objectivity’.” For journalists to be “fair and balanced” (thank you FOX News) they must “report the obvious”. The media owes Americans judgment calls when “objectivity” isn’t possible, otherwise they can be perceived as a threat to democracy.

So far, the issue of “Hunter’s laptop” is, obviously, not objective – the laptop may exist but it’s the contents that is important. What the FBI knew about the laptop isn’t different from the information the laptop contains now. The media may be taken to task for questionable reporting on the existence of the laptop, but until some media outlet reports on the significance of the contents, the laptop is, obviously, irrelevant. The media may just be doing their job – reporting the obvious.

Jamestown