Jake Tapper cutting off Stephen Miller’s interview was not impressive

WILLIAM A. JACOBSON JAN 7, 2018 6:08 PM

CNN is anti-Trump 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So anti-Trump that it has had some of the most embarrassing false reports, including:

• The false report that James Comey would testify that he never told Trump that Trump was under investigation.
• Three CNN journalists had to resign after a false report about a supposed investigation of a Russian investment bank with ties to Trump advisor Anthony Scaramucci.
• The false report about Trump’s supposed fish-feeding during a visit with the Japanese Prime Minister
• The claim that Don Jr. received advance notice from Wikileaks of the DNC hacked emails

Much of CNN’s coverage, if not outright false, is absurd Trump Derangement Syndrome, including:

• CNN is both obsessed with Russian collusion coverage, that coverage is completely skewed with anti-Trump commentators.
• White House correspondent Jim Acosta has become a punch line for his whiny, self-aggrandizing attempts to dominate White House press briefings.
• When some random guy made a funny GIF about Trump tackling someone with the logo of CNN placed over the face of the victim, and Trump retweeted it, CNN tracked the person down and threatened to DOXX him if he did it again.
• Chris Cuomo is on a holy Jihad to demean Trump supporters at every opportunity
• The “scoop” that Donald Trump supposedly gets two scoops of ice cream while everyone else gets only one.
• In depth reporting on Trump’s Diet Coke drinking habits.
• The multi-day fixation on a white truck that blocked its cameraman from filming Trump golfing.

CNN anchors tend to get very testy as soon as there is pushback, particularly from White House officials:

These list are by no means exhaustive. CNN in some ways is worse than MSNBC. At least with MSNBC there’s truth in advertising – they hate Trump, they admit it, and it’s what draws the readership. CNN is annoying because it presents the “fake” pretense of objectivity and real journalism.

Perhaps because of this false facade of journalism, CNN has been a particular target of Trump’s tweeting about “fake” news.

Against this portrait of CNN as part of #TheResistance stands Jake Tapper. Alone among CNN anchors, he seems to really want to be a neutral journalist, and he is willing to go against the CNN grain.

Which is why this segment with Trump advisor Stephen Miller was so disappointing. Both Tapper and Miller had agendas coming into the segment, both related to the Bannon dispute and the book by Michael Wolff that is of questionable veracity.

Miller wanted to present a view of Trump not often heard on CNN, and Tapper wanted to portray Trump pretty much as portrayed in the book. I don’t begrudge either of them, but Tapper’s response was to shut off the interview when Miller was noncompliant.

Hey, it’s Tapper’s show, he can cut the mic if he wants, but it didn’t reflect well on him. Tapper came across as snide and petty when he not only cut off the interview, he said “there’s one viewer that you care about now, and you’re being obsequious,” meaning Trump.

As if to prove the point, CNN put out this clip of the moment, when Tapper tells Miller to settle down:

But this more complete clip shows that Miller got the better of Tapper and Tapper’s reaction was out of frustration that Tapper’s agenda could not be accomplished.

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