“The coverage of Joe Biden aging, stumbling, gaffes, etcetera — I did some of that. Alex [Jake Tapper’s “Original Sin” coauthor] did some of it. Most media did. Conservative media did more of it. And I’m not disparaging any of it, but that is different than the investigative journalism we did for this book, which reveals [Biden’s mental decline] was much, much worse than how it appeared in front of the cameras.”
—Jake Tapper
That’s the basic sales pitch for CNN’s Jake Tapper: Buy my book, because I can confirm something that most of the country already knew.
It wasn’t just the Biden family, of course: The Democratic Party’s leadership, hierarchy, and elected officials deliberately misled the American people about the ex-president’s health. Echoing the Folgers Coffee commercial from 40 years ago (“We secretly switched their fresh-brewed coffee with Folgers Crystals!”), the Dems tried to secretly switch President Biden with President Autopen and hoped the public didn’t notice.
This was a party-wide scandal. There needs to be party-wide repercussions.
At least, that’s what Jake Tapper is trying to sell. These excerpts are from yesterday’s powwow with Stephen A. Smith:
As a general admission, I think that there are very few people in legacy media who, knowing what we know now, having reported this book, who were as aggressive on [Biden’s senility] as we should have been, could have been… But that said, this also was a cover-up: This was the Biden family and a small circle of aids… They weren’t only lying to the media. They weren’t only lying to the public. They were lying to cabinet secretaries. They were lying to donors. They were lying to Democratic officials. They were lying to members of the White House staff who were kept away from him. So that said, right, the media — including me — should take our lumps, 100%. But I do think there’s a larger issue here…
Of course, the counterargument is, it’s the job of a professional newsman to see through the most blatantly obvious, poorly executed cover-up since Howard Cosell’s toupee. I mean, if Jake Tapper saw that gnarly carpet perched atop Cosell’s scalp and thought, “Wow, what a lovely head of hair, I ought to ask what shampoo he uses,” your conclusion would be, “This guy’s not smart enough to be on television.”
Being tricked by the Biden White House shouldn’t be a badge of courage. It’s the telltale sign of your gullibility and/or stupidity.
Or, perhaps, the public’s: After all, they’re the ones who are being encouraged to buy Tapper’s book. But don’t you dare accuse Tapper of being motivated by the almighty dollar:
In terms of the left [saying my book is] a money grab, I mean, that’s not the case. It’s not. This is — I don’t want to get into where my money comes from, but I’m, y’know, CNN is my main job, and that’s where my main source of income by far [is]. Very few people write books to make money. You write a book because you want to say something. You want to have a legacy; you want to uncover something; you have a message you want to get out there. I don’t think people write books about Joe Biden to make money.
Bull-feces! Jake Tapper has a national TV show on CNN. If he simply wanted to “say something” and "get something out," I’m sure CNN would’ve been delighted to post excerpts of his award-winning, super-duper reporting on CNN.com for free — and/or break the news on their airwaves.
That’s the whole point of a news department: To break news!
Jake Tapper has been traveling everywhere to hawk this book. Big shows, little shows, podcasts, and more. For someone who doesn’t care about book revenue, he sure seems motivated to spike book sales.
Weird, huh?
As far as I know, Tapper hasn’t donated his book advance to charity, so I assume he’s pocketing the money. (I also assume he has a literary agent who negotiated industry-appropriate compensation for a best-selling, high-profile, tell-all book.) And I assume Tapper will eventually sell the film rights to someone like Netflix, where he’ll get a nice hunk of cash when his book is adapted into a miniseries.
Of course it’s a money grab!
On the right, Tapper’s critics are blasting him for his incompetence: How could you fall for such a poorly executed cover-up? But on the left, he’s suspected of political profiteering — and sitting on this news for personal gain.
Jon Stewart led the anti-Tapper charge:
"Don't news people have to tell you what they know when they find it out?" Stewart asked. "Isn't that the difference between news and a secret? 'You won’t believe what we found out.' No, that's why I'm watching you."
"Forgetting about the fact how … weird it is that the news is selling you a book about news they should have told you about a year ago for free," Stewart said.
Nonetheless, Jake Tapper trudges forward, sharing his divine revelation with the masses:
[The Biden cover-up was] anti-democratic, really. I mean truly. And I am surprised that more people who are thinking of running for president in 2028… I’m talking about the senators and governors, that more are not talking about this. ….What the Democratic Party did, in so many ways, was undemocratic — small ‘d’ democratic — in hiding his true condition, in trying to make sure that there wasn’t any sort of competitive primary. Even to the degree that they tried to devalue the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses, and made South Carolina first, just because they thought it would be less embarrassing for Joe Biden.… I certainly see a lot of the irony, or hypocrisy, in the sense that the party of democracy was actually, in so many ways, trying to prevent the voters from having an actual choice.
There’s an unmistakable arrogance to the Jake Tappers of the world: Everything is dismissed as “fake news” unless he’s the one reporting it. Yet once he realized the conservative media was right all along, he sojourned to Sinai, had a tête-à-tête with the Almighty, and then descended from the mountaintop, ready to share his greater wisdom with us “unwashed masses.”
The thing is, most of the country received the gospel months ago.
Saint Jake is CNN’s wannabe prophet, urging his listeners to atone and repent (by buying his book, of course) after the catastrophe has already taken place. “The End [was] Nigh!”
No offense, but prophecy and revelation are a helluva lot more useful before the catastrophe. Not so much afterwards.
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