Alongside the concerning announcement, this week, that CNN would be hosting the first general presidential debate next month was the equally concerning announcement that Jake Tapper would be tapped to be one of the moderators. The expectation of moderators to fact-check the candidates made Tapper’s selection was particularly concerning. In addition to his left-wing bent, Tapper has exhibited a truly disturbing lack of discernment of who to trust for sourcing facts, including claiming that propaganda from Hamas was trustworthy.
As NewsBusters reported last year, just 10 days after the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas against innocent Israeli civilians, Tapper openly suggested that “there’s no reason to doubt” Hamas figures about the death toll in Gaza.
“Let's go to a major story developing right now in Gaza, what the Palestinian government is calling a war crime, the government in Gaza says the Israeli Defense Forces struck a hospital in the center of Gaza City, the al-Ahli Baptist hospital,” he announced on October 17.
The purported attack was less than a few minutes old but Tapper was rushing to parrot Hamas claims that the number of people killed was “between 200 and 300” with “many more innocent people still trapped under the rubble.”
His colleague Anderson Cooper would later note that it could have been a Hamas rocket that fell short, but Tapper quickly shot back: “Yeah, I know. I mean, this is always a very difficult situation, because right now, we have reports of hundreds killed and there's no reason to doubt that.”
But in the light of day, it was clear we had every reason to doubt that. Not only was it a rocket that was fired from Gaza, it landed in the parking lock and only blew out the windows of the hospital, and the casualties were minuscule compared to upwards of 300 or more.
Tapper largely avoided accountability for his defense of the propaganda number put out by Hamas, but more recently (May 13) he did a segment on The Lead highlighting how “the United Nations quietly revised downward its numbers on fatalities for Palestinian women and children.”
Omitting the specific detail that the number was 50 percent lower, Tapper relied on correspondent Jeremy Diamond to spin the revelation as just some necessary bookkeeping (Click “expand”):
We'll Jake, this isn't about saying that fewer Palestinian women and children have been killed during this conflict. This all has to do with where the United Nations is pulling its data from.
The United Nations is now listing women and children who have been killed, but only those who have been whose identities have been fully documented. That means that they you know, the names, the dates of birth, the identity card numbers of those individuals. But that brings the United Nations to more than 7,000 children who have been killed, about 5,000 women. But there are thousands more women and children that the Palestinian Ministry of Health says have been killed in this conflict since October 7.
But in many of those cases, they don't have someone who has identified them by name with a specific date of birth, for example. That brings the Palestinian Ministry of Health to about 15,000 children, about 9,900 women who have been killed.
Diamond went on to defend the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health by arguing that “both U.S., as well as United Nations and other humanitarian aid agencies, these officials have all said that the Palestinian Ministry of Health figures have checked out in previous conflicts.”
“Right. The Palestinian Ministry of Health, obviously run by Hamas itself, and they don't distinguish between fighters and innocent civilians,” Tapper added, essentially suggesting the number was accurate and it just included Hamas fighters.
But the next day (May 14), Tapper struck a far more skeptical tone regarding reports from the Israeli Defense Forces that they had struck a Hamas “war room” in a U.N. school. “Israel says it killed more than ten terrorists, though CNN cannot independently confirm Israel's claim,” he declared.
Tapper was suspicious of IDF claims that Hamas was in U.N. school while we know multiple U.N. workers took part in the October 7 attack and accounts from former hostages show U.N. workers aided the terrorists.
Meanwhile, we’re supposed to believe Tapper is an honest broker of facts for a presidential debate?
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Lead
May 13, 2024
5:38:32 p.m. Eastern(…)
JAKE TAPPER: Jeremy, though, of course we can see the horror on the ground, clearly. It's been harder to get an accurate estimate of how many Palestinians have been killed since October 7 in Gaza. Last week, the United Nations quietly revised downward its numbers on fatalities for Palestinian women and children. Tell us more about that. What led to the change?
JEREMY DIAMOND: We'll Jake, this isn't about saying that fewer Palestinian women and children have been killed during this conflict. This all has to do with where the United Nations is pulling its data from.
The United Nations is now listing women and children who have been killed, but only those who have been whose identities have been fully documented. That means that they you know, the names, the dates of birth, the identity card numbers of those individuals. But that brings the United Nations to more than 7,000 children who have been killed, about 5,000 women. But there are thousands more women and children that the Palestinian Ministry of Health says have been killed in this conflict since October 7.
But in many of those cases, they don't have someone who has identified them by name with a specific date of birth, for example. That brings the Palestinian Ministry of Health to about 15,000 children, about 9,900 women who have been killed.
And it's important to note that both U.S., as well as United Nations and other humanitarian aid agencies, these officials have all said that the Palestinian Ministry of Health figures have checked out in previous conflicts.
But, of course, there is a difference between how the Palestinian Ministry of Health sees the casualty figures in Gaza and what the Israeli government is saying. We've heard from Israeli government officials, including the Israeli prime minister now saying they believe that about 14,000 plus militants have been killed and about 16,000 civilians. That's obviously a very big discrepancy with the numbers coming from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
TAPPER: Right. The Palestinian Ministry of Health, obviously run by Hamas itself, and they don't distinguish between fighters and innocent civilians.
(…)
May 14, 2024
5:50:29 p.m. EasternTAPPER: And we’re back with our world lead. Israel's military claims that it struck a Hamas war room in central Gaza in its effort to root out the terrorists group following the October 7 attack on Israel. The war room, Israel says, was imbedded inside a school in Nuseirat. That's the town. And operated by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA. Israel says it killed more than ten terrorists, though CNN cannot independently confirm Israel's claim. It’s clear the IDF is pounding that area.
(…)
