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Jake Tapper Ignores Prior Hit on Biden Reporters, and Alex Thompson Defends Their Book With Biden Excuses

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  May 15, 2025
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Pathological Media Amnesia – CNN

  • Let’s praise these brave heroes – who you insulted last year…

The upcoming book release by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson on Biden’s mental condition and the lack of journalism concerning that is proving to be a mounting problem for them, and the media ecosystem in general. It seems the more Jake promotes the book, the more issues of his own reporting (or lack thereof) emerge.

In the latest, we see Tapper defending the honor of two reporters from The Wall Street Journal who dared to report on Biden’s mental slide, Annie Linskey and Siobhan Hughes.

He castigates those who attacked their reporting and condemns Democrats who went after the two reporters.

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Like he had done in early June after their report was published.

Jake covered the release of their report, and HE noted they worked for Murdoch, and HE commented how they only spoke to Republicans. And at the time, Tapper did not invite the reporters on to discuss the article – he brought on Democratic Senator Chris Coons to criticize the report and defend Biden’s honor and condition.

Presentation Paradox – AXIOS

  • Say, Alex? Isn’t this the kind of thing your book is exposing as a problem?

Also getting tripped up by uncomfortable facts with the book is co-author Alex Thompson. Among the hypocrisies that have been pointed out about the two authors was a compendium of Jake Tapper’s past defenses of Biden, a video montage put together by Tom Elliot of Grabien. Thompson saw this video posted and sprung to the defense of his partner, but maybe being silent was best.

One crux of their book is how the White House was deceiving everyone and they pushed the narrative that “cheap fake” videos were used to embarrass Biden. Tapper is currently sitting for interviews and declaring boldly this was a fraudulent argument by that administration. So it is perplexing that Thompson would come out and declare that what Elliot put together was a false representation of Tapper’s own words on the air – that he was pushing out a “cheap fake video.”

News Avoidance Syndrome – THE NEW YORK TIMES

  • The selective family member attention is a nice look.

Try to think of how often you saw scathing exposés on Joe Biden’s brother over the past four years, considering how his name frequently would crop up in congressional investigations involving the shady Biden business dealings. He might get a mention from time to time, but there was little in the way of deep exploratory profiles done on the man.

With that absence in mind, Pope Leo XIV has not been the head of the Vatican for a fortnight, yet here is The New York Times sending someone down to Florida to ferret all of the details about the new Pope’s brother. His hangouts, hobbies, and other personal details are laid out in rather extensive fashion – but why? Oh! This is all stemming from the fact that he had questionable social media posts, which led to him being described as a MAGA disciple.

So THAT justifies exposing this man’s personal life on a national stage.

Both Kinds of Standards – ROLLING STONE

  • All it took was one policy shift and corporations stopped being greedy.

During Bidenomics, there was a frequent talking point from the Democrats: Prices were going up not because of inflation, but due to corporations gouging customers. They tried feigning ignorance that when companies absorb higher costs that gets transferred into higher pricing.

Well, now we have a new president, and there is a new financial impact on businesses, and with that – a new interpretation of who to blame. When it comes to tariffs, there have been some selective cost increases in the marketplace.

(Side note: We just got a new vehicle, and the salesman said the quoted price would be higher due to tariffs, and I called BS on him. He said it was out of his hands, so before I walked away, I asked him how tariffs affected the price of a 2025 model that was on the lot before the inauguration. He later called back with a lower price than previously quoted.)

Rolling Stone had a piece on the higher prices seen at retailers like Walmart, and there is a notable difference this year. Gone are the accusations of a rapacious company preying on shoppers, and here we get the new approach, that this afflicted business is victimized by Trump’s tariffs and is helpless in raising prices just to remain viable.

(Should we ask why a company that has long prided itself in selling American products is so affected by tariffs?)

Gilded Reframe – AXIOS

  • Hopefully, they will get to the bottom of where that hysteria came from!

As we have been covering all week, the positive indicators all across the economy are creating havoc for the press, who are all insistent that there will be dire economic results from…well, ANY thing Trump does. So, yep, even as we see Rolling Stone trying to play a funeral dirge for the economy, here is Axios painfully coming around to detail that things may not be so close to 1930s Depression Era levels of badness.

The predictions over tariffs torpedoing the economy have yet to come to fruition, and as Axios details things might actually look – dare they say it – good?

With major indicators from April — the month of peak tariff uncertainty — now in, none show the kinds of recessionary or inflationary conditions implied by business and consumer surveys. New data out Thursday showed steady retail sales and a surprising drop in wholesale prices in April.

Okay, but this is the press we are dealing with, and as the pattern has shown in 2025, even fantastic economic news MUST carry with it words that portend doom ahead – so will Axios follow that script?

"There is little evidence, so far, that tariffs are inflationary and instead profit margins are being squeezed. But as Walmart suggested Thursday morning, that is a situation that may not last long," ING chief international economist James Knightley wrote in a note.

And there it is. Wow, it is some mystery how these economic fears manage to get overblown, right media experts?