The Hunter Biden laptop story was a giant nothing-burger and no one had any real information about it before the election. It took time to responsibly analyze the contents are accurately report on it, and none of that happened until well after the election. Reporting on it at all before the facts were available would have clearly been inflammatory for no good reason.
> no one had any real information about it before the election
The information was out there and the 50+ "former intelligence experts" have admitted that they had no idea what they were talking about, and what's more, they're still proud of it.
The media just didn't do their jobs. A real reporter would have said, "This is fishy. I wonder what the facts are." A real reporter would have called the Post and said, "Show me what you've got."