How Tapper and Thompson got Biden wrong by ignoring what was in plain sight

A great deal of mirth and ribbing has been directed at CNN’s Jake Tapper in recent days over his co-authoring of a tell-all blockbuster book about how awful he and his colleagues are at their jobs.

But last week, during one of his approximately 27 million TV appearances to hawk, “Original Sin,” the book on the Biden administration’s lies that he dashed off with Axios’ Alex Thompson as soon as the 2024 election was over, Tapper said something that was so close to really understanding his subject and his job that it almost hurt.

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Appearing on CBS News, Tapper said, “So, there were people reporting on what they saw. The conservative media was, to their credit, all over this. Now, they didn’t have insider information, but they were just making sense of all the clips, and all of the weird moments, and off-putting moments.”

What Tapper misses here is that conservative media didn’t get it right in regard to Joe Biden’s obvious and abject unfitness for office in spite of not having insider information, they got it right because they were not relying on insider information.

In Tapper’s twisted view of journalism, and it is one widely shared, the evidence we see with our own eyes is not sufficient. Instead, it isn’t news until some whistleblower spills the beans, which puts all the power in the hands of sources.

Since the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, everything has to be a Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein-style scoop. A story isn’t real without some turncoat in the administration, even though they, too, have agendas.

Obviously, the big problem here is that all of Tapper and Thompson’s sources spent years deceiving them and the American people, but now, suddenly, we are expected to believe everything these same serial liars say.

Sorry. Not happening. 

Let’s take the tempting tale being spun by Tapper and Thompson now that it was actually first son Hunter Biden who was running the show. It’s delicious, maybe the crack-addled Burisma executive really is the smartest man Joe ever met. The artist behind the curtain.

However, and call me a cynic if you will, this particular version of events just so happens to be the one that paints Tapper and Thompson’s insider sources in the best possible light.

Basically, what these insiders are saying is, “Man, we really tried to do the right thing, but that Hunter, he just blocked us at every chance, which is too bad because he has a pardon for anything he did with the autopen now, but what can you do?”

And once again, Tapper and Thompson just eagerly write it all down as if they were standing atop Mt. Sinai taking dictation of the Ten Commandments from God.

The bottom line is that even if you are a generous soul inclined to trust Tapper and Thompson, only a fool would trust their insider sources. So honestly, what is the point of even reading the book?

This speaks to a much deeper problem with journalism which tends to frame all political coverage as a government that is lying and intrepid reporters sussing out the actual truth when that is almost never what actually happens.

Instead, these journalists confuse sourcing with access, so all their “sources” are people advancing their agenda. Now, suddenly, the agenda is to pile on Biden and salvage our reputations (for media AND insiders). 

George Orwell said, “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”

Tapper and Thompson have both been doing a lot of PR for Democrats for a very long time.

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A source, especially an anonymous source, is almost by definition only telling a reporter something they want the reporter to print. It can sometimes be helpful, but it is never the whole story.

The hilarious final twist in all of this is that in Donald Trump, we have a president who takes more questions than the average corporate call center and owns everything the press accuses him of from sending migrants to El Salvadoran jails to holding Crypto Balls at his resort. It’s all just out in the open.

The age of post-Watergate “gotcha” journalism has driven the industry off of a cliff. Nobody believes what journalists say because they are just mouthpieces for those in power.

The primary job of the journalist isn’t to pry out some hidden information being kept from people; They aren’t detectives. It is to accurately report on and analyze what we know is happening.

In that regard, the coverage of Joe Biden’s decline, his clear inability to serve, is arguably the worst journalism that ever been attempted. Tapper and Thompson couldn’t see what was right in front of their face because they were convinced there had to be something deeper, something hidden. 

It is time to turn the page and get back to a journalism that deals in reality, not speculation. Until that happens, Americans have no reason to believe anything the Jake Tappers and Alex Thompsons of the world tell them.

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