There’s a wise old saying in journalism that was created over the weekend. It goes like this: “A true reporter must never sniff around the details of a story until another reporter has already done so. Unless that story is about a Republican. Then it’s all hands on deck.”
CNN held firm to this creed over the weekend. On Jake Tapper’s show I’d Tap That w/ Jake Tapper, he eloquently explained this to his audience.
“Some may say, ‘Hey Jake, one of the Presidential candidates is a senile national security risk who has two dozen foreign leaders ready to blackmail him—shouldn’t you report on that?’ And the answer is yes, of course,” Tapper boldly said into the camera. “That would be worth reporting on because we didn’t know Donald Trump was senile.”
Tapper’s guest, Mitt Romney put it this way, “That whole Biden laptop thing isn’t even a thing, because if it were, it would be a thing!”
CNN president, Jeff Zucker defended the logic in a statement:
“If reporting isn’t being done, that’s your first hint that you’re not to touch it. You don’t reinvent the wheel. That is why CNN has always had a big problem with the guy who invented the wheel. What gave him the right? You just don’t go marching into uncharted territories unless someone’s already done it first.”
Update: CNN’s Brooke Baldwin briefly considered reporting on the laptop, but nevertheless, she persisted in not persisting.
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