Jon Stewart slams CNN for promoting Tapper’s Biden book amid cancer news

“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart called out CNN on Monday for relentlessly promoting Jake Tapper’s new book on former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity, slamming the network for advertising “a book about news they should’ve told you was news a year ago for free.”

Stewart opened his show with a montage of the CNN anchor promoting the book that both he and Axios’ Alex Thompson wrote, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” and questioned why Tapper hadn’t previously reported the information in the book to the public.

“Don’t news people have to tell you what they know when they find it out? Isn’t that the difference between news and a secret?” Stewart asked. “‘You won’t believe what we found out!’ No, that’s why I’m watching. Breaking news… in a week.”

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“The Daily Show” host continued to poke fun at the release of the book before mentioning that there was “a little problem,” calling attention to Biden’s recent prostate cancer diagnosis.

“You’ve prepared an entire smorgasbord based on what you thought would be a relatively uncomplicated story about mental decline. News has the countdown clock, they got the book graphics, they got the CNN Happy Meal tie-in toys, but now doing the story seems almost disrespectful,” Stewart said. “Can CNN thread the needle? How do you pivot from excitedly promoting your anchor’s book to somberly and respectfully promoting your anchor’s book?”

He then played another montage of various CNN personalities promoting the book on the network while simultaneously covering Biden’s cancer diagnosis.

“It’s so hard. It’s such a difficult time. So unfathomable in terms of the pain his family must be feeling, and yet, if you act now, and you use the code ‘TapThatBook,’ you will–” Stewart ribbed.

He continued his criticism of the network, saying, “Forgetting about the fact how f—— weird it is that the news is selling you a book about news they should’ve told you was news a year ago for free, it’s just fun to watch them not only continue to push the book in light of this difficult news, but to actually frame this difficult news as perhaps even more of a reason to buy this book.”

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Stewart then called out CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter for telling his audience that the reporting in Tapper’s book “is even more important now,” following the former president’s prostate cancer diagnosis.

“Yeah, nobody’s saying that. No observers will say it’s more important now,” he asserted. “Some observers might think that these CNN people work on commission. Like, why are they hawking this f—— thing? Is this a Girl Scout cookie situation? Whoever sells the most Tapper books gets a Schwinn!”