Watch: CNN Anchor Berates Trump for Pushing ‘Bizarre, Unfounded Conspiracy Theory’ And It’s Awesome

Journalists Need to Do More of What Jake Tapper Just Did

News junkies likely remember September 18, 2013, very well. It is the day NBC News’ Chuck Todd announced it is not his job to push back on or correct misinformation the Republicans had been spreading about Obamacare. Todd went so far as to chastise President Barack Obama “for not selling” Obamacare.

Literally 51 weeks later Todd would take over as the host of NBC News’ crown jewel, “Meet the Press.”

Meanwhile, on CNN Tuesday, Jake Tapper, anchor of “The Lead,” took a different approach to his duty as an actual journalist.

“Once again, journalists are in the unhappy predicament of trying to decide whether and how to cover false allegations raised by a candidate for president of the United States,” Tapper announced at the beginning of a segment on Donald Trump.

Tapper proceeded to explain that Trump has been raising the spectre of Vince Foster, a longtime Bill Clinton aide who, sadly, fatally shot himself in a successful act of suicide in a Washington, D.C. park. 

Conspiracy theorists for literally decades claimed the Clintons killed Foster, or had him killed, etc., etc., etc., because that’s what crazy people do: say insane things.

Tapper accused Trump of repeating an “outrageous and long-ago-debunked falsehood” about Foster.

“The notion that this was a murder is a fiction born of delusion and untethered to reality and contradicted by evidence reviewed in at least six investigations, one of them by Ken Starr, hardly a Bill Clinton defender,” Tapper said, noting the attorney appointed to investigate Pres. Clinton. That investigation was the basis of the GOP impeaching the 42nd President of the United States.

“To say otherwise is ridiculous, and, frankly, shameful,” Tapper accused. He slammed Trump, saying he “lent credence to a bizarre and unfounded conspiracy theory,” and added, “it’s not fair that you did that, certainly not to Mr. Foster’s widow or their three children.”

Exactly. And awesome.

Journalists are under no obligation to be stenographers. They are under no obligation to deliver what one faux news network likes to call “fair and balanced” reports, handing readers and viewers false equivalencies. Some things just are, and Trump bringing up Vince Foster as an attack against his Democratic opponent is, as Tapper said, ridiculous, and, frankly, shameful, and not fair to Mr. Foster’s widow or their three children. It’s also disgusting.

Watch:

 

Hat tip: The Hill