{"id":1393019,"date":"2022-03-21T23:59:51","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T03:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1393019"},"modified":"2022-03-21T23:59:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T03:59:53","slug":"newsguard-advisory-board-member-michael-hayden-yet-to-retract-biden-laptop-russian-disinfo-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newsguard-advisory-board-member-michael-hayden-yet-to-retract-biden-laptop-russian-disinfo-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsguard Advisory Board Member Michael Hayden Yet to Retract Biden Laptop &#039;Russian Disinfo&#039; Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnewsguard-advisory-board-member-michael-hayden-yet-to-retract-biden-laptop-russian-disinfo-claim%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1393019&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Former Bush Administration CIA director Michael Hayden, who spent much of the Trump years attacking and belittling Republicans, has yet to retract his claim that the Hunter Biden laptop story was \u201cRussian disinformation,\u201d despite serving on the advisory board of Newsguard \u2014 an organization that claims to oppose the refusal to correct major errors in news stories and commentary.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Breitbart reported on the role of Hayden on the advisory board of supposed non-partisan misinformation watchdog Newsguard, a supposedly \u201cneutral\u201d project that claims to fight untrustworthy and \u201cfake\u201d news:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/tech\/2021\/08\/23\/purportedly-neutral-newsguard-has-partisan-clown-michael-hayden-on-board\/\">Breitbart: Purportedly \u2018Neutral\u2019 NewsGuard Has Partisan Clown Michael Hayden on Board<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The increasingly partisan, Trump-hating former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden still serves on the advisory board of the organization.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17477130\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1297460867.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. President Joe Biden hugs his son Hunter Biden (Photo by Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Hayden was among the national security officials that signed a letter falsely claiming that Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop story was Russian disinformation.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/10\/19\/hunter-biden-story-russian-disinfo-430276\">Politico: Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Former CIA directors or acting directors Brennan, Leon Panetta, Gen. Michael Hayden, John McLaughlin and Michael Morell also signed the letter, along with more than three dozen other intelligence veterans. Several of the former officials on the list have endorsed Biden.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Last week, 18 months after The New York Post broke the story about Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop, the <em>New York Times<\/em> finally reported emails from the laptop have been \u201cauthenticated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/16\/us\/politics\/hunter-biden-tax-bill-investigation.html\">The <em>New York Times<\/em>: Hunter Biden Paid Tax Bill, but Broad Federal Investigation Continues<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had examined emails between Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer and others about Burisma and other foreign business activity. Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>12.5 percent of Newsguard\u2019s ratings criteria specifically applies to whether or not a publication \u201cregularly corrects or clarifies errors.\u201d But Newsguard board member Hayden has yet to correct or clarify his, despite the fact that it concerns one of the most important news stories of the 2020 cycle, one that will likely continue to be a major story as the federal investigation of Hunter Biden continues.<\/p>\n<p>In a comment to Breitbart News, Newsguard general manager Matt Skibinski stressed that Hayden plays no role in determining the ratings of news websites.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAs we specify on our website, Newsguard\u2019s advisors \u2018play no role in the determinations of ratings or the Nutrition Label write ups of websites unless otherwise noted and have no role in the governance or management of the organization,&#8217;\u201d said Skibinski.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat includes Michael Hayden\u2014with whom we have never discussed the laptop story or any website\u2019s rating. The most obvious evidence of this is that despite any views Hayden may have had about the Hunter Biden laptop story, no publication\u2019s rating ever was negatively affected as a result of publishing that story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Skibinski did not respond to the specific question of why a frequent media pundit and commentator who refuses to correct an error about such a major news story should remain on the board of an organization that supposedly values accuracy and corrections in news.<\/p>\n<p>Hayden was far from alone in his error. In a CNBC interview following the\u00a0<em>New York Post\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>first stories on the Hunter Biden laptop, Newsguard founder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/tech\/2022\/03\/17\/newsguard-ultimate-fake-news-humiliation-fact-checking-orgs-co-founder-called-hunter-bidens-laptop-a-hoax\/\">Steve Brill said he believed the story was a \u201choax perpetrated by the Russians,\u201d<\/a> an opinion he has yet to correct publicly. Skibinski stressed that it was just an opinion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn that quote, Steven Brill said his \u2018personal opinion\u2019 as the story was breaking was that there was some possibility it was false\u2014before adding that his personal opinion does not matter and that people should be able to read the story and judge for themselves, rather than having it censored by big tech platforms,\u201d said Skibinski. \u201cIndeed, his opinion did not matter\u2014there turned out to be no evidence that the laptop or its contents were a hoax, so no publication was penalized for publishing the story. Our ratings are based on a thorough review of the evidence, not any one person\u2019s opinion or speculation\u2014even when that person is the CEO.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.\u00a0He is the author of\u00a0<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/DELETED-Techs-Battle-Movement-Election\/dp\/154605930X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">#DELETED: Big Tech\u2019s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Bush Administration CIA director Michael Hayden, who spent much of the Trump years attacking and belittling Republicans, has yet to retract his claim that the Hunter Biden laptop story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1393019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1393019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1393019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1393019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1393019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}