The Biden laptop scandal continues to unfold as Hunter Biden files retaliatory lawsuits
The Special Report panel debates the latest development in the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and the removal of Ilhan Omar from House Foreign Affairs on 'Special Report.'
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government announced Thursday that it will shut down its years-long "misinformation" research program, parting ways with the program's director who was notably skeptical of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, announced in an email obtained by Semafor that the Technology and Social Change Project, which studied disinformation online, was being shut down for what the outlet referred to as "bureaucratic reasons."
"The Kennedy School’s standing policy is that all research projects must be led by a full faculty member. While there can be limited exceptions, those can’t continue indefinitely without a faculty member as the principal project leader and academic head," the director wrote.
The announcement means that Harvard will be parting ways will Dr. Joan Donovan, who has led the project since its inception in 2019 to "help newsroom leaders fight misinformation and media manipulation." Donovan has become a champion of Democrats who've echoed her warnings about the dangers of so-called misinformation on social media from members of the right.
Harvard banners hang outside Memorial Church on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Photo by Michael Fein/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Among the case studies spearheaded by Donavan was an assessment of the media's coverage surrounding the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story, which was published by the New York Post after President Biden's son's missing laptop turned up in a Delaware repair shop. The laptop contained dozens of damning emails from his time at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Like many left-wing media outlets, commentators and academics at the time, Donavan appeared dismissive of the story, questioning its reliability.
In an apparent reference to Big Tech’s suppression of the story, the New York Times reported Donavan's project concluded that the media's reaction to the revelations offered "an instructive case study on the power of social media and news organizations to mitigate media manipulation campaigns."
FLASHBACK: BIDEN OFFICIALS PUSHED ANGLE THAT HUNTER LAPTOP WAS ‘RUSSIAN DISINFO’
But even after the Times and others confirmed the authenticity of the younger Biden's laptop and acknowledged that it was prematurely dismissed – in many cases – as "Russian disinformation," Donavan seemingly remained skeptical.
In a tweet from April 2022, Donavan refers to the Hunter Biden laptop as a "straw man."
"Me and @cwarzel Looking at the content on the Hunter Biden Laptop, the most popular straw man question at #Disinfo2022," she wrote, alongside a photo, in which she and Charlie Warzel, a staff writer for The Atlantic, displayed exaggerated skeptical expressions.
The New York Times and The Washington Post both eventually verified Hunter Biden's laptop after big tech dismissed the New York Post's bombshell reporting during the 2020 presidential election. (Getty images | New York Post)
On the day of the 2020 presidential election, during the Harvard Kennedy School podcast PolicyCast, Donavan expressed doubt about the Hunter Biden laptop story.
"The sourcing of the laptop being dropped off in Delaware at a lonely repairman's shop that's just... If you can charge $85 for fixing a broken laptop, I want to know you. It's a broken laptop, right? So, the sourcing of it just stinks of tradecraft. It stinks of a drop. And many cyber-security professionals are waiting for an opportunity to forensically analyze the contents of this hard drive," she said.
Later on in the podcast, Donavan said earlier stories about Hunter were being repeated in conservative media but weren't being reported in other outlets, so she predicted an esclatiaon of tactics would happen.
"What we see as researchers when they're trying to make a story happen time and time again, and it doesn't, then you start to see the intensification and adaptation of tactics. So, we pretty much expected more and different styles of attack, including a leak, but was really suspicious of it, is you've got someone with millions of dollars. He can't afford Geek Squad at Best Buy to come to his house for the laptop that he's evidence of crimes on? I mean, it's really hard to believe," Donavan said.
Hunter Biden's laptop was at the center of a Big Tech censorship campaign in 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
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Her announced Harvard departure comes as Hunter Biden appeared to admit that the laptop at the center of a federal investigation belongs to him in a new letter from his lawyers, prompting widespread criticism of mainstream media organizations and prominent voices who were quick to write it off.
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