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Journos Who Promoted Michael Avenatti Urge 'Caution' on Hunter Biden Collusion Story

October 14, 2020

The professional journos are at it again. A New York Post report on Hunter Biden's emails suggests the renegade son of the former vice president attempted to introduce his dad to a Ukrainian oil executive in 2015. Members of the news media seized on the report, urging "caution" and admonishing their colleagues for sharing it on social media.

Members of the media have not always displayed such skepticism when it comes to promoting salacious claims about a prominent political figure. The professional journos were not as hesitant, for example, to amplify outlandish (and false) accusations of gang rape against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 confirmation hearing.

MORE: Facebook Reduces Reach of Hunter Biden Report Before Fact-Checking It

MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin spoke for many of his journo colleagues when he urged his followers not to share the New York Post report, which he said would amount to "amplifying what appears to be disinformation."

Griffin and his boss, Lawrence O'Donnell, were less concerned with amplifying flawed accusations in 2018, when the MSNBC host interviewed media darling Michael Avenatti about his client, Julie Swetnick, whose lurid accusation against Kavanaugh fell apart upon minimal scrutiny.

Avenatti, who has since been convicted of fraud, and Swetnick were eventually referred to the Department of Justice for making "materially false claims" to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The media did not, to say the least, exercise caution when it came to amplifying their claims.

Washington Post "fact checker" Glenn Kessler alluded to the New York Post report by tweeting out the paper's policy on publishing "hacked or leaked material," and urging his followers to "be careful what is in your social media feeds."

In 2018, Kessler wrote a "fact checker" "analysis" of the accusations against Kavanaugh, which did not appear to check any facts or perform any sort of analysis. The piece did, however, repeat Swetnick's allegation that Kavanaugh had participated in a "gang rape."

CNN's Brian Stelter amplified Kessler's tweet advising caution. His network hasn't always followed that advice. For example, CNN published a story on a Kavanaugh allegation after the accuser had already recanted.

David Corn, an MSNBC analyst and D.C. bureau chief of Mother Jones, urged the media to "do better" when it comes to handling the allegations in the New York Post's story on Hunter Biden.

Corn reacted somewhat differently to Swetnick's allegations against Kavanaugh. Indeed, he simply posted the "new Avenatti declaration" that supposedly "raises serious new questions" about the Supreme Court nominee.

Here's Daily Beast editor Molly Jong-Fast on the Hunter Biden story:

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1316341608389005312

Here's Molly Jong-Fast on Julie Swetnick: "Swetnick accused Kavanaugh of running a 'rape train,' getting girls drunk and participating in gang rapes. These are shocking accusations. But maybe we should have expected revelations about sexual misconduct from a Trump nominee."

Former CNN producer Steve Krakauer had the following, somewhat provocative, take on the matter: