HBO Real Time host Bill Maher accused the media on Friday of burying the 2020 story of Hunter Biden’s laptop because “it wasn't part of their narrative” and because the story broke in the New York Post.
Maher also concluded by declaring that the lack of initial coverage is why Americans do not trust the media:
Now, what I said at the beginning, how it came to them? It came to them through Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon. So, yes, of course, when Rudy Giuliani says “I've got some evidence” you take that with a giant thing of salt, but not two years. It didn't take two years. It looks like the left-wing media just buried the story because it wasn't part of their narrative and that's why people don't trust the media.
Earlier in his scolding of the media for burying the laptop story, Maher also sarcastically mocked the idea that any business would hire Hunter Biden on his merits:
And if anyone should not leave his computer with other people it would be Hunter Biden. Just for the personal stuff. But it also had stuff about how you know this -- come on, he's a ne'er-do-well, I'm sorry Hunter Biden, but you are and, you know, you made a living being a ne'er-do-well who was taking money just because you were the vice president's son and you had influence, he got, I think, four point, yes, eight million dollars from Chinese energy companies to sit on the board and consult. Yeah, that was his passion in life, energy exploration. Hooker exploration was his passion.
Maher then took on Twitter and other media outlets for censoring and not covering the story simply because it came from conservative outlet:
Okay, so the New York Post got a hold of what was in the computer and, you know, ‘cause the New York Post is a Republican paper and the New York Times and the Washington Post are the Democrat paper[s], that’s where we are again, kind of. And The Republican paper – Twitter wouldn’t, canceled their account. You can't even report on this story and now two years later, the New York Times and Washington Post have come around to say ‘okay, there was something there.’
The only thing that could’ve made the segment better was if CNN’s Laura Coates had showed some self-awareness when she followed up by blaming echo chambers for the media’s story-selection process.
Here is a transcript for the April 1 show:
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher
4/1/2022
10:37 PM ET
BILL MAHER: I mentioned at the beginning of our republic, we used to have, in John Adams’s day, different newspapers for different parties. They actually had their own newspaper, like Thomas Jefferson had his newspaper and I feel like –
ANDREW YANG: We’re there now aren’t we?
MAHER: Aren’t we. And here’s what brought it home to me this week, the New York Post I—I-- remember reading about this a couple of years ago – the New York Post came across – now how they came across we need to get into because it is relevant – but, Hunter Biden’s computer which he apparently left at a computer repair store, I didn't even know they existed
Okay, so the New York Post got a hold of what was in the computer and, you know, ‘cause the New York Post is a Republican paper and the New York Times and the Washington Post are the Democrat paper, that’s where we are again, kind of. And The Republican paper – Twitter wouldn’t, canceled their account. You can't even report on this story and now two years later, the New York Times and Washington Post have come around to say “okay, there was something there.”
Now, what I said at the beginning, how it came to them? It came to them through Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon. So, yes, of course, when Rudy Giuliani says “I've got some evidence” you take that with a giant thing of salt, but not two years. It didn't take two years. It looks like the left-wing media just buried the story because it wasn't part of their narrative and that's why people don't trust the media.
