The New York Times quietly deleted its assertion that an article about Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop and what it revealed about his foreign business dealings was “unsubstantiated.”
The Times reported on a Federal Election Commission decision that dismissed a Republican complaint against Twitter over its censorship of the New York Post’s bombshell Hunter Biden report, which was published in October 2020.
In the original report, the Times claimed: “The Federal Election Commission has dismissed Republican accusations that Twitter violated election laws in October by blocking people from posting links to an unsubstantiated New York Post article about Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter Biden.”
The Times doubled down on this claim in a tweet:
Breaking News: The FEC ruled that Twitter’s decision in October to block an unsubstantiated article about President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, did not violate election laws, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. https://t.co/EzFKKvQ7X2
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 13, 2021
The publication’s national political reporter, Shane Goldmacher, who wrote the initial report, also called the Hunter Biden story “unsubstantiated”:
NEWS: The FEC has dismissed claims that Twitter acted illegally when it blocked users from posting an unsubstantiated Hunter Biden article.
Decision not public yet but sets a precedent for future cases involving social media sites and federal campaigns.https://t.co/egdp3KY1HV
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) September 13, 2021
Just hours later, the Times stealth-edited its report to remove the claim that the Hunter Biden story was “unsubstantiated.”
The publication did not include an editor’s note explaining why the change had been made.
Now, the report states: “Twitter decided briefly last fall to block users from posting links to an article about Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter,” it says.
As several conservatives pointed out, the New York Post’s report on Hunter Biden’s laptop has been substantiated by several other media publications, and Hunter Biden himself has not denied that the report is true.
In fact, he admitted he is under federal investigation for potential tax fraud and money laundering shortly after the report was published.
