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Jon Stewart tore into CNN Monday night, blasting the network for aggressively promoting anchor Jake Tapper’s new book about former President Joe Biden’s health — a topic Stewart said the network should have covered during Biden’s term.
“Forgetting about the fact how f–king weird it is that the news is selling you a book about news they should’ve told you was news a year ago for free,” Stewart said.
“The Daily Show” host criticized the network for continuing to promote the book just as news broke of Biden’s recent cancer diagnosis.
“It’s just fun to watch them not only continue to push the book in light of this difficult news, but to actually frame this difficult news as perhaps even more of a reason to buy this book,” according to Stewart.
Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson wrote “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.”
In a biting segment, Stewart mocked CNN’s on-air campaign for Tapper’s book, which reportedly includes revelations about Biden’s cognitive health as well as embarrassing anecdotes about the former president forgetting the names of his top aides.
He played a montage of Tapper plugging the book in eight separate CNN appearances before questioning the ethics of holding back information for commercial purposes.
“Don’t news people have to tell you what they know when they find it out?” Stewart said.
“Isn’t that the difference between news and a secret? ‘You won’t believe what we found out!’ No, that’s why I’m watching. Breaking news… in a week.”
The timing of CNN’s push for the book has come under particular scrutiny following recent reports of Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis. Stewart noted the tension between the network’s promotional efforts and the president’s health announcement.
“You’ve prepared an entire smorgasbord based on what you thought would be a relatively uncomplicated story about mental decline,” Stewart said, referring to CNN’s wall-to-wall build-up to Tapper’s book release.
“News has the countdown clock, they got the book graphics, they got the CNN Happy Meal tie-in toys, but now doing the story seems almost disrespectful.”
He then sarcastically questioned how the network could transition from selling the book to reporting on Biden’s cancer with appropriate gravity.
“Can CNN thread the needle?” Stewart asked. “How do you pivot from excitedly promoting your anchor’s book to somberly and respectfully promoting your anchor’s book?”
Stewart played a compilation of various CNN anchors and correspondents continuing to mention Tapper’s book on air even as they discussed Biden’s diagnosis.
He then delivered one of the segment’s harshest lines: “It’s so hard. It’s such a difficult time. So unfathomable in terms of the pain his family must be feeling, and yet, if you act now and you use the code ‘TapThatBook,’ you will—” Stewart said, trailing off in mock infomercial style.
Continuing the critique, Stewart said, “It’s just fun to watch them not only continue to push the book in light of this difficult news, but to actually frame this difficult news as perhaps even more of a reason to buy this book.”
He closed by showing a clip of CNN’s chief media analyst Brian Stelter, who described Biden’s cancer diagnosis as “dramatic” given its timing ahead of Tapper’s book release.
“The timing of former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis is certainly dramatic, coming on the eve of a blockbuster new book about his health and his time in the White House,” Stelter said, adding, “I’m sure some observers will say that the reporting in the book is even more important now.”
“Yeah, nobody’s saying that,” Stewart shot back.
“No observers will say it’s more important now. Some observers might think that these CNN people work on commission. Like, why are they hawking this f–king thing? Is this a Girl Scout cookie situation? Whoever sells the most Tapper books gets a Schwinn!”
The Post has sought comment from CNN.
English (US)