Fox News contributor Mara Liasson refuted libertarian pundit Robby Soave after he claimed that letters to the Justice Department on behalf of Hunter Biden were endangering the freedom of speech.
On Sunday's edition of the Media Buzz program, Soave complained about letters that Biden's attorneys sent to the Justice Department to urge an investigation into the copying of his personal information. The letters named conservative media and personalities that disseminated information about a laptop allegedly belonging to Biden.
"It's like a whistleblower scenario," Soave said. "You're going to go after — you don't go after the people that report the information once they get it; once they had a hand — unless there was a criminal matter and they participated in that to get the information. Otherwise, you get information like this; you're supposed to report it."
"And he's trying to silence that, and that's very bad," he asserted.
Fox News host Howard Kurtz wondered if Soave was right to believe "this is a chilling atmosphere for freedom of the press."
"Donald Trump didn't like his press coverage and used to try to change it," Liasson pointed out. "I don't know if he ever threatened lawsuits or not. I think he did, actually."
"Well, he sued a few people," Kurtz recalled as Soave's argument crumbled. "In fact, he sued Bob Woodward for $49 million over those audio tapes."
"Is that a chilling effect on free speech?" Liasson asked. "I think Donald Trump is a bigger, more powerful figure than Hunter Biden."
Soave shifted arguments and wondered: "Where will be the mainstream denunciation of what the Biden family, of what Hunter Biden is doing here against freedom of the press?"
"You can argue about how much coverage every type of media is giving this story," Liasson retorted, "and whether it's enough or not. And that's always in the eye of the beholder. But you just played a lot of clips from mainstream media and them talking about this story."
"It's never going to be enough for conservative media," she added, "for which it's above the fold every day."
