Former CNN President Jeff Zucker defended the network’s lack of coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal Friday during a talk in Philadelphia.
Zucker told current CNN host Michael Smerconish that there was not enough evidence at the time of the leak to give the story heavy airtime, claiming that the network “did deal with it … to the degree that you would have thought was appropriate.”
“[Hunter Biden] was never arrested,” Zucker reminded Smerconish, according to the Daily Mail. “The Justice Department was looking into it, never reported it until he is the son of a candidate. I don’t think it’s a main story until that happens.”
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Smerconish said, however, that by not covering the story, the network looked partisan, to which Zucker said he did not “disagree.”
Smerconish also admitted that he should have talked about the story more himself.
Zucker stepped down as the boss of CNN earlier this year after he failed to disclose a consensual relationship with a female staffer. Zucker said the relationship became romantic during the pandemic, but other staff members said the relationship had been an “open secret” for 10 years despite both people being married until 2018.
During Zucker’s tenure, the network faced heavy criticism for being biased against Republicans after greatly criticizing former President Donald Trump and his administration, yet not covering scandals from the Left, including the Hunter Biden story, which broke shortly before the 2020 presidential election, after Biden left the laptop at a Delaware repair shop.
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New CNN boss Chris Licht has attempted to shift the network away from its partisan past, including by firing notable anchors, such as Brian Stelter and Chris Cuomo, and shifting Don Lemon from a prime-time spot to the morning side. CNN also recently hired more centrist hosts, including Fox News’s Chris Wallace, for the company’s digital platform last year.
