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Both Sides, Book Deals, and Bullsh*t: The Jake Tapper Story

Jake Tapper and those like him are a cancer on our democracy. The worst predictions of the film Network come to life. The Ronan the Destroyers of free, fair & honest distribution of information, vital to the survival of any democratic republic.

You’re likely being inundated by Tapper & Friends right now, with robo-regurgitated pablum and other hysterical wagon circle-jerking. I.e. Tapper’s corporate-media pals telling us we must snort his sensationalistic, bank-account padding opus on Joe Biden’s *cognitive challenges* before he dropped out of the presidential race. No, I won’t link to it, or bother sharing its name.

You see, this is what happens when a member of the Big Six—yes only six—monopoly- media conglomerates that control ~90% of what you see, hear, read or play, has one of it’s *stars* write a book of no actual news value. One that won’t solve any challenge or expose any crisis. You will, however, get the usual suspects tweeting out “OMG must read” (thanks, but I decided the Twilight series wasn’t for me) missives that’ve waded through more horseshit than RFK Jr’s grandkids on a picnic in Rock Creek Park.

Let’s get this outta the way: I proudly wrote ads for then-candidate Biden in 2020, as we defeated the feral quadruped occupying the Oval Office. I didn’t work for him after. While I think he was one of the three or four most consequential domestic policy Presidents of the past 125 yrs, passing an amazing array of legislation with small majorities as mouth-breathing MAGA Morlocks were perpetually on the prowl. Yet, if you think this is about my past work for Biden: I didn’t think, at the time, he should run for reelection due to age and actuarial charts (science, if you will).

So, no, this has zero to do with my work for Biden, or feelings about his presidency. It’s about Jake Tapper writing this tome, at this moment, on the cognitive state of a guy who isn’t fucking President, while we deal with a maniacal-numbnuts president who says he needn’t follow the Constitution. Trump’s saddled us with a self-inflicted recession via DOGE, deportation and illegal tariffs, cruelly ignored the plight of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and is clearly just an ornament on Putin’s Christmas tree. But, sure, write a book about the former guy! How courageous, Jake! [See, Real Thing]

As for “cognitive issues,” funny Tapper has nothing to say about a pathological weirdo obsessed with sharks, batteries & toilet-flushing, who thought he was running against Obama (said publicly more than once) and thought Nikki Haley ran security at the Capitol Jan 6th. A convicted felon. An adjudicated rapist. He would’ve gone to trial for stealing state secrets and storing them in the same Mar-a-lago room where Jake’s book belongs. Nope. No book on that guy.

All’s well in corporate-media land. They’re going to Disney! (part of one of the six conglomerates who control our information! Soon, Space Mountain will give you ear buds that repeat the message that space travel was invented by Elon and mountains are for mountain-top mining as you’re on the ride).

Tapper is, in fact, what happens when you blend smug self-satisfaction and boundless ambition with corporate cowardice and slap a CNN logo on it. He struts around like he’s play-acting reincarnated Edward R. Murrow, but let’s be honest, some mix of Charlie Chaplin and Father Coughlin would be more to the point. The guy didn’t just sell out; he held a clearance sale on integrity.

Tapper was once..not this. He did press for a Democratic Congresswoman. I know his past, via friends, even met him back in the day when I lived in DC. He was a 20-something writer for Salon, but oh man did he want tv-career fame and status. So he left for VH-1, made his way to ABC and CNN. When President Obama called Fox propaganda, and tried to shut down its reporters to protect democracy against disinformation, there was Tapper, to belch out Fox-obsequious disapproval that Obama dare do this to "their sister station." [Insert Barf Emoji]

More recently, in 2024, there was his Trump/Biden debate-moderating fiasco where Tapper refused to fact check Trump’s machine-gun lying. David Shuster, in our conversation about this on our livestream, let us in on the fact that Tapper wanted to fact check. But CNN said no. So instead of walking away, like someone with any honesty would do—see Shuster or Jim Acosta—Tapper said, “ok.”

I imagine it went like this:

Jake: I’d like to fact check at the Trump/Biden debate CNN Corporate: No Jake: ) No problem! Can I still moderate, pretty please? My speaking fees and book advances depend on it! First Amendment, First Schma-mendment, right!?

Tapper couldn’t be more emblematic of why you should support indy media and kick the monopoly-media habit. While Jake’s blaming Biden for Trump being president, he should try a mirror. Nobody wants Jake to be “liberal” or a “Democrat.” Just to be faithful to his role under the Constitution to inform the public. To tell the GD truth—instead of harping on a past president to give Chris Cillizza a stiffy.

If Tapper spent half as much time investigating Trump’s ongoing coup as he did the mental acuity of a former POTUS, we might have a functioning press. But that’s not the game, is it? Brand building! Access! Selling books to the same Beltway cocktail crowd that’s been asleep at the wheel for a decade as a fascist pathogen spread right under their inebriated noses. Tapper isn’t informing the public—he’s laundering mediocrity for elite approval and bank.

And don’t forget—Tapper isn’t just a symptom, but a willing participant in the rot. The dunderheaded Biden book? It’s not journalism, it’s PR for authoritarianism. While our country—his country—teeters on the edge, he’s polishing his 30 pieces of silver and angling for his next book deal, all while pretending to be “fair” and “balanced.” Spare me. Tapper’s not holding the line in the battle against autocracy.

Unless, of course, it’s the Maginot Line.

🎙️ Amped Up with Cliff Schecter this week featured bestselling author Jeff Pearlman—who’s written 10—yes 10—books! We had a no-holds-barred conversation on Trump’s long history of sabotage, from the USFL football league, where he got good practice, to today’s democracy. Pearlman lays out exactly how Trump’s ego, lies, and backroom dealings destroyed an entire football league — and how that same blueprint is playing out again on a much bigger stage.

🔥 Plus: Brett Favre, Barry Bonds, NIL chaos in college sports, and how independent voices like ours are pushing back against a media system too afraid to tell the truth.

🎧 Listen to the full episode →

🧠 Analysis & Reflection: Important Stories This Week

• We’re at the point now where former Judge Luttig, who served on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and whose opinions were compared to those of the late Justice Scalia, has warned us that Donald Trump’s refusal to say he will follow the Constitution is “the most important” and “dangerous” story of our time.

• When you think you’ve reached the most sick, cretinous levels of inhumanity, find a Trumper to take you the extra mile. I wrote about how so many MAGA are failed fame-whores; wannabe actors, singers…who, ya know, suck at those things.

  So here comes gravel-pit Suzy, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, most famous for shooting her dog and posing in costumes in front of concentration camp prisoners in El Salvador: Pitching a reality show pitting immigrants against each other to try and become citizens. I am NOT joking. She knows for whom she works, and knows who she is. Thanks for not telling America, Jake & Friends.

• You’ll have a harder time finding truth uttered by Karoline Leavitt—when not sunbathing with her 107-yr old hubby—than lies. She rivals Trump. Which is..saying something:

  

🐱 KITTY PIC! A Tribute To Pepper Squeaky Farley, 2010-2025. RIP.

Usually, we just give you a pic. But this week I wanted to share something special. My pal, Mike Farley, is former leader singer of a band that had a great run putting out albums and opening for, among others, Dave Mathews Band and The Pretenders. Now he does publicity for numerous indy bands out there making some great music.

His family, tragically, had to put down their cat. But, Mike’s young son, Jonathan, wrote an awesome tribute to their kitty, Pepper Squeaky. Here’s some of it:

Squeaky was born on June 26, 2010, at the Dane County Humane Society in Madison, Wisconsin. She loved playing with a ball of yarn and kept on meowing whenever she needed something.

Immediately, the first thing I did to her was to pull her tail. My parents were very disappointed and decided not to get a cat, but the lady suggested seeing how it goes. As they were talking to each other, I crawled into the cat tube, and Squeaky jumped on the top of the tower and was batting at me. I then grabbed the ball and threw it at her. It was our first time playing with each other. I pointed at her and called her Gilbert. My parents immediately thought we were definitely bringing this cat home with us. So we officially adopted this cat! They gave her a box to carry from the building to the car. While we were on our way home, my parents thought about a name, and my dad thought she looked like the colors of a Salt n’ Pepper shaker, so they decided to call her Pepper. Later that afternoon, we got her a litter box, a cage, 2 bowls for her food and drinks, and some toys for her to play with.

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There were some funny moments with her, and some not-so-good moments during our 14-year tenure with her. For the not-so-good moments, she would sometimes destroy our furniture by scratching it with her claws. And as for the funny moments, after whenever she uses the bathroom, she would usually zip around the house, being frisky (which we coined that in 2020), and acting crazy. She would often beg my dad for food, tiring out my dad every time. She would even sometimes get into the bathtub and lie down in it, making my mom laugh. She may sometimes get up onto the top of the cabinets to avoid a specific thing. Or one time, in the basement, she somehow managed to make her way to the ceiling while my mom was working on fixing up the basement, which made her laugh really hard.

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Pepper was such a sweet girl who loved being with us for 14 years. She leaves us a lasting legacy, and we will remember her from our hearts forever.

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The Blue Letter will be back Monday!