Archives for 2009

DougJ has already talked about it, but this quote from the Tapper paean just cracked me up:

Of course Tapper — who in his early days worked for Handgun Control, Inc. and Salon — is somewhat taken aback by the idea he’s rooting for the Right.

“It’s always nice to be complimented — if that’s what that was,” he tells National Review Online. “Believe me, I don’t doubt there will come a day when Mr. Limbaugh and National Review consider me once again to be part of the ‘MSM,’ either too tough on Republicans or insufficiently tough on Democrats.”

Still, he admits that there has been a clear bias in favor of Obama. “Certain networks, newspapers, and magazines leaned on the scales a little bit,” he told Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post’s media critic. However, while covering the 2000 election for Salon, Tapper was also quite public about his feeling that the media were “refusing to shine a light on the things Bush doesn’t seem to know or understand.” Obviously, Tapper doesn’t think the cure for bias in one direction is to be biased in the opposing direction. (He says he doesn’t vote in presidential elections, to help preserve his objectivity.)

Virtually every single ridiculous meme circulated in the right-wing wankosphere during the election found its birth with Jake Tapper. Whether it was the nonsense about the teleprompter, which Tapper was pushing in February of 2008, or the “ZOMG HE CALLED SARAH PALIN A PIG” which came to us courtesy of Tapper, or the time that Jake Tapper mysteriously decided to work late and tell us that an innocuous statement from Obama was an allegation of racism directed at the McCain campaign (Rick Davis loved this title, Jake: “Did Obama Accuse McCain of Running a Racist, Xenophobic Campaign?”. He liked it so much we got treated to a week of Republicans running around to every media outlet accusing Obama of playing the “race card.” ), or the time when he decided to plant the meme that Obama is a liar because Jake thought he smelled smoke on his breath, or, of more recent vintage, when he got the vapors over a stupid joke from the Tonight Show.

Again, almost every BS storyline the Republicans and the McCain campaign ran with during the election, with the notable exception of the tire gauge affair (and if I remember correctly, to his credit, I think Tapper corroborated the Obama story about the Afghan Captain in the Army), either saw its birth with Tapper or was heavily promoted by Tapper before hitting the Drudge wurlitzer and making it bigtime. Yeah. It is a real mystery why people might have the impression Tapper is a tool for the right. I just can’t figure out why they would think that.

*** Update ***

I was wrong and am being unfair to Tapper- it was the Politico where the lipstick idiocy started.

It’s a Mystery Wrapped Inside a Riddle!Post + Comments (52)

No one could have predicted this. Here’s the National Review’s Mark Hemingway, who got an interview with Tapper:

What we can say for certain is that Tapper isn’t afraid to go against the grain of the liberal consensus in pursuit of a story. Whether he was pointing out that Barack Obama was a “one-man gaffe machine,” factchecking Obama on the surge, or chiding him for blaming any and all mistakes on his staff, no mainstream journalist was tougher on Obama during the campaign. Considering the fact that much of the media gave Obama the kid-glove treatment, Tapper’s reporting was essential.

[….]

Rush Limbaugh declared on air that “Jake Tapper is the one guy outside the butt-boy bubble in the White House press room,” all but giving Tapper the closest thing to a seal of conservative approval to be found within the “liberal media.” Of course Tapper — who in his early days worked for Handgun Control, Inc. and Salon — is somewhat taken aback by the idea he’s rooting for the Right.

Of course, being the subject of a fluff piece from a right-wing publication increases Tapper’s professional status. Similar treatment from a left-wing one would be a career killer.

Wingers heart TapperPost + Comments (48)