Hunter Biden's laptop admission prompts fierce criticism of media who initially dismissed it: 'Corrupt allies'

First son Hunter Biden's seeming admittance that the laptop at the center of a federal investigation belongs to him late Wednesday in a letter from his lawyers prompted widespread criticism of mainstream media organizations that dismissed it as unreliable and even Russian disinformation.

"Hunter Biden admits infamous laptop is his. Not Russian disinformation, not a ‘plant’ as his father and 51 dishonest former intel officials pretended," journalist Miranda Devine, who authored the book "Laptop from Hell," tweeted, referring to the 51 intelligence experts who signed a letter casting doubt on the scandal in 2020.

"So Hunter Biden is now admitting, after three years, that everything on the laptop is real? Bold strategy. Especially after Democrats & their media allies spent years arguing Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation," Outkick founder Clay Travis wrote. 

HUNTER BIDEN’S LAWYERS DEMAND CRIMINAL PROBE INTO LAPTOP LEAKERS, GIULIANI AND OTHERS, ADMIT LAPTOP IS HIS

Writer Kelly Jane Torrance asked, "How many people and publications is it that owe the @NYPost an apology?" 

Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, wrote letters to the Justice Department and the Delaware attorney general on Wednesday calling for investigations into Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon and John Mac Isaac, who owns the computer repair shop where Biden is said to have left his laptop. Biden's lawyers also sent cease and desist letters to others who obtained and disseminated the laptop's contents.

Lowell argued in the letters that Mac Isaac and the others had no right to inspect the contents of Biden's computer, much less make copies of it to share with the media. He told Fox News' Jacqui Heinrich on Thursday, however, that the letters requesting the investigation were not an admission that the laptop belonged to his client.

CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and NPR did not immediately respond when asked if any corrections or statements would be issued in the wake of Hunter Biden’s apparent admission. Those outlets have all verified the laptop's legitimacy to some degree in their own reporting in the years since 2020.

The laptop saga began in October 2020, when the New York Post reported about a 2015 email from a Ukrainian energy executive to Hunter Biden, thanking him for introducing him to his father, that it obtained from the hard drive of Biden's laptop. Joe Biden was vice president at the time of the message, and his son then enjoyed a lucrative position on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm, raising concerns of attempted influence-peddling with his powerful father. 

The laptop's content included a peek into Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings, as well as more sordid material like homemade sex tapes and videos showing him using illegal drugs. 

The laptop was widely dismissed by print and television outlets, especially The New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC and CNN, and in an astonishing display of coordination, Twitter and Facebook blocked or limited sharing of the New York Post's article about Biden; Twitter even locked the New York Post out of its account for weeks.

HUNTER BIDEN SAGA: WASHINGTON POST AUTHENTICATES LAPTOP AFTER DISMISSING ‘FAKE’ SCANDAL IN 2020

Then-CNN host Brian Stelter hypothesized the emails could be "made up" and the story was simply the "right-wing media machine" in action. "60 Minutes" host Lesley Stahl told then-President Donald Trump in 2020 that the laptop couldn't be "verified," and NPR announced it wouldn't "waste our time" on "stories that are not really stories."

The Washington Post eventually did a stunning about-face in its coverage of the laptop, but didn’t inform readers of the truth until well after President Biden had occupied the White House. 

In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, billionaire Jeff Bezos’ paper largely kept its readers in the dark as to the seriousness of the Hunter Biden scandal.

The Washington Post first addressed the Biden controversy on Oct. 14, 2020, the day the New York Post broke its story, using a variation of the "Republicans pounce" trope to frame the story, running the headline, "Three weeks before Election Day, Trump allies go after Hunter — and Joe — Biden."

Right out of the gate, the report expressed heavy skepticism towards the legitimacy of Hunter Biden's emails and sowed doubt in the GOP sources who first obtained the laptop. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler also authored a skeptical "explainer" of Biden's laptop and the paper published multiple opinion pieces urging readers to dismiss the controversy altogether. 

NPR QUIET ON TWITTER FILES AFTER CALLING HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY A WASTE OF TIME

In March 2022, The Washington Post finally authenticated thousands of emails from the laptop in a lengthy report about Hunter Biden's "multimillion-dollar" financial ties to the Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy.

Much like The Washington Post, the New York Times also confirmed the authenticity of the laptop in March 2022, well after the Gray Lady reported on it skeptically during the 2020 campaign. Politico, NBC News and CNN also eventually verified the laptop. 

The New York Post covered the news Thursday with a front-page story headlined, "It's mine."

Other media critics like Glenn Greenwald took to Twitter with thoughts on Hunter Biden's seeming admission. 

NY TIMES, WASHINGTON POST REPORTING ON HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP AFTER EARLIER DOUBTS PROMPTS MEDIA 'RECKONING'

An upcoming hearing for the House Oversight Committee will focus on Twitter's censorship of the New York Post's original story. Other House investigations are expected to focus on Hunter Biden's business dealings. Those investigations are likely to rely heavily on the contents of the laptop.

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Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, Jacqui Heinrich, Joseph A. Wulfsohn and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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