Jake “Transparency” Tapper
Hey, everybody! Go rush out and get a Twitter account just so Jake "Transparency" Tapper can ban you from following him on his Twitter feed! It’s the newest badge of honor among ethical journalists!
I kid thee not — as Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen notes, he banned Adam Serwer of TAP for tweaking him on his Drudge-feeding hypocrisy, then went on to banTPM’s David Kurtz for making fun of his thin-skinned pomposity. Which is not surprising, really, as Tapper’s known for heavily moderating the comments section on his blog and censoring people who offer even the mildest of criticisms.
Now remember, this is the same Jake Tapper who snottily ragged on Robert Gibbs last month for an alleged lack of "transparency". Even better: I was reminded, in the comments section of that WM post, about just how Jake Tapper got his big break. Check this out:
…But there are only a handful of people who live up to the sophomoric term "tool" quite the way ABC reporter Jake Tapper does. For starters: His big break was selling out the story of a date he had with Monica Lewinsky. He dated a Miss America contestant, once called a college-age reporter a "pussy" and, at the beginning of his career, reportedly handed a Salon reporter a wad of his chewed gum, telling her it would be "worth something someday."…
Craftsman or Snap-On, that’s my only question.
Oh, and by the way: Banning folks from following you on Twitter isn’t all that effective. Just so you know.
UPDATE: Just got back from checking — per the insistence of frankly0 — and Kurtz has been unblocked. So has Serwer. But would they have been unblocked if they hadn’t been journalists with the ability to reach a few hundred thousand readers, and been able to raise a stink big enough to hit Tool Boy where he lived?
What about all the others — particularly the ones whose megaphones Tapper figures aren’t big enough to cause Tapper pain? People like this guy and this guy and this guy and this one.
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
Ack: an empty suit.
an empty suit…. would be an improvement.
Tapper…tapped out?
Asking if he’s a Craftsman of Snap-on implies that he’s a good tool. Seems to me, he’s more like one of the ultra cheap a** tool sets that will break in two if any extra pressure is applied
ya beat me to it !
A: Acme
dakine – aren’t you the resident Hill Topper ? if so, very happy for ya and rooting for your boyz. although if you’re like me, you’re quite superstitious ’bout this stuff and don’t want anyone mentioning it :D
There ya go!
PLEASE stop trying to educate GOPers! Besides being very amusing, their inability to deal with basic technology gives us DFH netizens a decided advantage.
Boxturtle (I’ll bet even money that Trapper does not know what a netizen is)
I know Craftsman tools.
Some of my best friends are Craftsman tools.
Jake is no Craftsman
(He’s more like one of the knockoffs in the 99 cent bargain bin with the packaging filled with misspellings: “Hamer” or “screwdrivr” or . . .)
This clown fits into the category of “I could carve a better man from a banana.”
Carry on.
And most likely made in china….
Speaking of Twitter – seems like someone put up a twitter account for KO and it wasn’t KO. Twitter refuses to take it down.
BTW A tap is used to thread a hole so you can screw it.
The ones you see guys trying to see from the backs of pickup trucks at flea markets? Yeah, that’s about right.
Busted Knuckles would have something to say about cheap pop metal tools.
Those comments would likely end up in moderation.
(And, if Busted’s mother is around, perhaps get Busted’s mouth washed out with soap.)
You might mention that Tapper has now, according to Benen, unbanned the people you note.
If you have any interest yourself in transparency, that is.
He has? Well, good for him. I’ll check that out and see if is the case.
But riddle me this:
1) Would he have done so if people weren’t mocking him over it?
2) How many of the myriads of people not named Kurtz will be unblocked? Or is it just the ones with access to good-sized megaphones?
UPDATE: Just got back from checking — and Kurtz has been unblocked. So has Serwer. All the others — particularly the ones whose megaphones Tapper figures aren’t big enough to cause Tapper pain? People like this guy and this guy and this guy and this guy — and these are just the ones Tapper’s blocked from among the regular commenters over The American Prospect’s blog. I haven’t started sifting through the TPM and Washington Monthly readers yet.
I bet that Tapper gumwad ends up in the Smithsonian.
James Galbraith is up
James K. Galbraith Reponds to Geithner’s Toxic Asset Plan
Somebody from TPM was banned and complained about it? I think Tapper is just using the technique of Obama’s supporters and blogs. TPM and Huffington Post come to mind as plenty of us were banned for daring to question Obama and supporting Clinton.
That’s funny, Glenn, because I’ve heard lots of Obama supporters complain about being banned from TPM and HuffPo and lots of other sites. Like you, they haven’t exactly been able to document this — or to show that if they were zapped, they weren’t zapped for good reasons.
Plus, as several of the folks commenting on WM, TPM and TAPPED who were blocked from following Tapper’s Twitterings have shown, Tapper doesn’t simply ban, block, or censor people for being trolls. He goes after them merely for a) disagreeing with him and b) having the temerity to back it up with facts and links. For example (bolding mine):
Hey, PW this is interesting. Shouldn’t be a major thing, but given that this guy is the “senior ABC news White House correspondent,” that makes it important.
I am so saddened to see print news dying so fast—but stupidity like Tapper’s is unfortunately part of the problem. (Just yesterday two of my local papers’ columnists, one local issues/watchdog/political commentary, the other local sports, published their last columns – laid off.
Again, dumb. The only thing local news outlets really have to offer that is unique, compared to national outlets, is their local coverage. These guys were good writers, had been here a long time. No doubt they were chosen because their tenure and experience made them “expensive.”)
Anyway, Tapper deserves every nasty thing that can be said about him. And his inability to adapt to two-way communication, to ordinary readers pointing out factual errors and slanted opinion masquerading as fact, just hastens the demise of his form of media.
Craftsman or Snap-On, that’s my only question. Neither those are both high quality brands, he’s more like something you’d find in th bargain bin at a dollar store.
In fairness, I had a sharpish exchange on Twitter with Jake Tapper this a.m.
As far as I can tell, I’m still unblocked. (boadiceatx on twitter, ftr)
beat ya to the punch — did same yesterday!
also, apparently tapper is known for censoring opposing comments on his abc news blog, too!
upon edit: ah, forget that last one, looks like phoenix woman covered the same comment.
I know this is weird and innappropriate…but I had a dream last night about Jake Tapper gay marrying Rush Limbaugh .
I should add I have zero idea of JT’s (or Rush’s) inclinations in that dept., so my apologies if I’ve accidentally outed anyone :{