Notes on the Twitter Files

Herewith a few short notes on the Twitter Files disclosing the suppression of the New York Post’s reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop three weeks in advance of the 2020 presidential election.

• Twitter is a powerful instrument for good and evil. Elon Musk’s efforts to create a new Twitter with a favorable disposition to free speech has made him an enemy of the regime. They are crying that this cannot be allowed to stand. The regime is searching for an angle to do to Musk’s new Twitter what old Twitter did to the New York Post reporting. The fight is ongoing and barely visible.

• The Post’s reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop was powerful and important. The Post deserved a Pulitzer Prize for its work on the case. The roster of 2021 Pulitzer Prizes/Journalism reads like a satirical masterpiece in light of the Post’s work on the Biden laptop.

• While I think Twitter’s uses are manifest, they do not include long-form journalism. Matt Taibbi’s thread on old Twitter’s suppression of the Post’s reporting makes for an awkward exposition. Yet Taibbi’s exposition establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Twitter had no bona fide reason for the suppression of the Post’s reporting.

• Taibbi’s exposition is missing a few pieces. Miranda Devine fills in one of them in the New York Post column “FBI warned Twitter during ‘weekly’ meetings of Hunter Biden ‘hack-and-leak operation’ before censoring The Post.” The Post editors follow up today in “FBI’s fake ‘warnings’ about our Hunter story were clearly a coverup to aid Joe Biden.”

• The suppression of the Post’s reporting was a deep state operation. It first manifested publicly in the open letter of the deep state 51 reported by Natasha Bertrand for Politico and posted online by Politico. Bertrand’s story was headlined “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.” Politico posted the letter here. According to the deep state signatories, the Post’s reporting “ha[d] all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

• What are the “earmarks”? Do they have a lot in common with investigative journalism? Do they involve authentication of the underlying documents?

• The signatories of the letter italicized this: “Perhaps most important, each of us believes deeply that American ci8zens should determine the outcome of elec8ons, not foreign governments. All of us agree with the founding fathers’ concern about the damage that foreign interference in our politics can do to our democracy.” And this: “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”

• Ah, the inexhaustible uses of “our democracy” and Russia, Russia Russia!

• The signatories also italicized a concluding sentencing commenting on reports that the “…federal authorities are investigating whether the material supplied to the New York Post by Rudy Giuliani…is part of a smoke bomb of disinformation pushed by Russia.” The signatories modestly disclaimed personal knowledge: “We do not know whether these press reports are accurate, but they do suggest concern within Executive Branch departments and agencies that mirrors ours. It is high time that Russia stops interfering in our democracy.”

• What do the deep state 51 have to say now? Jon Levine reports in the New York Post: “Former top intel chiefs silent after Musk Twitter disclosures.” The few who have spoken stand by their sham.

• Hey, what about Natasha Bertrand? What does she have to say?

• Twitter of course had its own deep state man serving as deputy counsel of the company. Jonathan Turley takes up this element of the case in “Twitter files reveal familiar name in Hunter Biden laptop scandal: James Baker.” Quotable quote: “For many, James Baker is fast becoming the Kevin Bacon of the Russian collusion scandals.” At his own site Professor Turley called it “Six degrees from James Baker.”

• Just as the MSM fell into line suppressing the Post’s reporting in advance of the election, it has now fallen into line condemning Matt Taibbi. Mediaite compiles “The Twenty-Seven Most Embarrassing Reactions to Taibbi Thread About Twitter Censoring Hunter Biden Tweets.”

• Matt Taibbi drew attention to the Mediate compilation in the tweet below.

• Here we have a compilation packed into a tweet

• The case of the Hunter Biden laptop reveals an incredible and metastasizing malignancy far above our poor power to add or detract.

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