On Thursday's The Lead, CNN analyst Tom Fuentes was unwilling to conclude that the perpetrator of a mass shooting against servicemen in Chattanooga, Tennessee was Muslim. John Berman asked the former FBI assistant director, "Now that we have the name [Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez], the key questions are what?" Fuentes replied, "I know...what the name sounds like, but we don't know that it's a Muslim name. We know it's an Arabic name."
The Lead
By P.J. Gladnick | June 12, 2015 | 10:43 PM EDT
Could you just give me a straight answer? Like a simple yes or no? Please don't try to squirm your way out of it. You still won't answer? Aggghhh! Aggghhh! AGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
One could forgive Jake Tapper if he felt like channeling his inner Sam Kinison on CNN's The Lead today while he was trying to get a simple answer from Hillary Clinton spokeswoman, Karen Finney, on the subject of Hillary's position on the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) trade bill in Congress. Tapper's very visible exasperation with Finney's nonanswers were completely understandable as she continued her evasive shuffle on the topic all through the interview.
By Curtis Houck | May 1, 2015 | 6:07 PM EDT
During an exclusive interview with former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley on Thursday’s edition of The Lead on CNN, host Jake Tapper asked the possible presidential candidate for what he thinks of “conservatives who say, this shows that liberal policies are failing urban America.” In addition to discussing the protests and rioting in Baltimore and what was then known about the investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, Tapper shifted to discussing his record as mayor in context of what’s taken place over the last week in the Charm City.
By P.J. Gladnick | April 24, 2015 | 1:42 PM EDT
Congratulations to Jake Tapper! The host of CNN's The Lead has today been named as the new host of the Sunday morning news show, State of the Union. Whatever his personal political proclivities might be, Tapper has proven himself to be a generally honest reporter. It is hard to imagine him acting in such a blatantly political manner as previous State of the Union host, Candy Crowley, did when she acted as an Obama enabler when she moderated a 2012 presidential debate.
However will Tapper's positive personal qualities be enough to buck the liberal CNN tide? Sadly yesterday amidst the fast breaking news of even more serious Clinton scandals, Tapper's The Lead as well as almost all the rest of CNN shows yesterday remained a Clinton scandal-free zone. We shall get to that later but first let us view the happy announcement of Tapper's new duties in addition to continuing to host The Lead.
By Matthew Balan | April 17, 2015 | 5:28 PM EDT
As of Friday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning and evening newscasts had yet to cover Hillary Clinton's false claim that all four of her grandparents emigrated to the United States. In reality, only one – Hugh Rodham, Sr. – was born abroad in England. By contrast, all three main cable news channels – CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC – covered Mrs. Clinton's tall tale about her family between Wednesday evening and Thursday evening.
By Curtis Houck | March 17, 2015 | 6:07 PM EDT
Appearing on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on Tuesday afternoon, chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Likud Party and “right-wing” allies for having “a sort-of racist policy towards” Arabs that has been “very scary for them” as the world awaited results from the national elections in Israel.
By Matthew Balan | February 18, 2015 | 5:43 PM EST
For the second time in just over a week, CNN aired a misleading on-screen graphic. On Wednesday's The Lead With Jake Tapper, during live coverage of President Obama's speech to a White House summit on "countering violent extremism," a lower third chyron stated, "Obama: Must 'Stigmatize' Muslim Community."
By Curtis Houck | January 30, 2015 | 12:57 AM EST
On Thursday night, the major broadcast networks declined to cover reports that one of the five Taliban detainees swapped for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May 2014 has been seeking to rejoin the terrorism ranks by contacting Taliban members back in Afghanistan.
The news, which was broken by CNN Thursday afternoon, came following reports on Wednesday from Fox News and NBC News that the Army could be pressing desertion charges against Bergdahl for leaving his post prior to his capture in 2009. Since those stories arose, the Pentagon has denied those allegations.
By Curtis Houck | November 13, 2014 | 9:49 PM EST
As ABC and NBC continued to censor any mention of the disparaging comments made by ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber from their Thursday night newscasts, CBS aired second story on Gruber with this one (and the other coming from Thursday’s CBS This Morning) airing on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley.
While the report by CBS News national correspondent Wyatt Andrews covered what Gruber said, how Democrats and Republicans have responded, and that he was a paid White House adviser on ObamaCare, Andrews did not attempt to point out the contradiction House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi createdThursday when she denied ever having heard of Gruber when she had in fact praised him in 2009.
By Tom Blumer | November 13, 2014 | 8:22 PM EST
I think this makes six videos (CNN says they have Number 4, and I believe this is Number 5) of Obamacare co-architect Jonathan Gruber giving away the Obama administration's comprehensively deceptive game in drafting and promoting the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
The most relevant 40-second snip is at the YouTube account and a Thursday afternoon post by the indispensable Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit. It's a small portion of a 33-minute June 2012 interview of Gruber at PBS's Frontline. The most important revelation is that President Barack Obama was in the room and actively participating in, if not leading, a discussion about how to effectively take away the tax benefits of the most generous healthcare plans which were then being offered in the marketplace. What resulted is now known as the "Cadillac Tax." But there is much more to that Frontline video.
By Tom Blumer | October 28, 2014 | 12:08 AM EDT
The most recent CNN/Opinion Research poll covering October 24-26 shows that 68 percent of those surveyed said that they are "very angry ... or somewhat angry ... about the way things are going in the country today," and that 60 percent are "very scared" or "somewhat scared." CNN's web coverage and the poll report presented on Jake Tapper's show today relayed that info.
But, predictably, the poll was seriously cooked. Its 31%-21%-48% breakdown of Democrats, Republicans and independents is a sick joke. Gallup's continuously running breakdown as of mid-October, by comparison, is 29%-33%-35%, a 14-point swing from the CNN poll. So CNN's video reassurance that voters have a one-point generic ballot preference for Democrats really translates to at least a +4 for Republicans in the real world.
By Matthew Balan | September 18, 2014 | 6:01 PM EDT
On Wednesday's The Lead, CNN's Jake Tapper tried to pull former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney out of acting like an apologist for President Obama. Tapper turned to his guest, who had just spent an entire segment defending his former boss's ISIS policy, and asked, "What is the difficulty in getting Arab allies to kick in with military assistance? Jay, you don't work for the White House anymore. You can be frank. What is the problem?"