By now, you've certainly read that CNN's Jake Tapper has floated the idea of banning Republican guests from his show if they don't meet his personal litmus test for veracity and candor.
“How am I supposed to believe anything they say?” Tapper asked fellow CNNers John Berman and Brianna Keilar earlier this week. “If they’re willing to lie about Joe Biden wanting to steal your hamburgers and QAnon and the Big Lie about the election, what are they not willing to lie about? Why should I put any of them on TV?”
It's an excellent question. It's an excellent question for the host of a (checks notes) political news program with regular segments populated by partisan advocates who spin, hyperbolize and rhetorically contort every possible issue and idea to conform to their goal of winning an argument and making the case against their political opponents.
The Tapper criteria for guest bookings might as well come with a rejoinder that partisan advocates need not apply unless they agree with what Tapper cares about most. You see, this is not about the truth as much as it is about the core issues that Tapper appears to hold dear.
If this were about the truth, Tapper would pre-screen each of his Democrat guests with a few questions that are comparable to the Biden burgers, QAnon (whatever the hell that is), and the 2020 election.
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Let's start with an easy question Tapper should ask every Democrat booked on his shows: Is Hillary Clinton lying when she says the 2016 election was stolen?
I mean, she says it a lot.
Facebook banned Trump for saying, since November 2020, that the election was “stolen.” But Hillary Clinton, since November 2016, has said THE SAME THING. Why hasn’t Facebook banned for Clinton for peddling “The Big Lie” about her 2016 defeat?!? pic.twitter.com/rokrSovlEA
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) May 6, 2021
Follow-up... is Hillary Clinton also lying when she says Trump was an "illegitimate president"?
While he's pre-screening his political guests for their honesty, how about another question: Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone?
This is a very serious question, actually. Think about it: If a Democrat believes the Oliver Stone version of the JFK assassination and thinks there was a conspiracy involving the CIA to assassinate the president of the United States to perpetuate the Vietnam War and expand the military-industrial complex, how is that somehow more virtuous than having doubts about the ballot counting and verification procedures in Georgia and Pennsylvania?
How many Democrats holding elective office today think Oswald acted alone? Better question... Do you think Tapper, himself, thinks Oswald acted alone?
Another question, this one from my friend and colleague Hugh Hewitt: Was Alger Hiss a Soviet spy?
This shouldn't be controversial, but for some reason (you can speculate as to what that reason is), Democrats are loath, even after all these decades, to concede that Whittaker Chambers was right and the United States State Department was infiltrated at a very high level by Soviet spy Hiss.
Suppose a Democrat refuses to concede that Hiss worked with the Soviets (even though he was convicted of perjury connected to his denial before the House of Representatives). Why should Tapper put them on his show and trust what they say in their interview?
One last challenge for a Democrat booked on Tapper's show: Are there more than two genders, and if so, how many are there?
This brings us (finally) to the real point here. Just because a Republican politician doesn't want to concede an issue to Tapper, to pass some litmus test, doesn't mean they are lying; it means they are being political.
I'll explain. I have no doubt that the vast majority of Democrats Tapper would book on his show believe the very real scientific fact that there are two genders, male and female. They believe that, and they know it to be true. But, admitting this on his program without obfuscating, spinning, and all-around hemming and hawing would put them in severe political jeopardy with the liberal rage mob and the political donor class of their party.
So, they will do anything to avoid answering the question, or they will vaguely say there are more than two genders, but they aren't experts on the topic, "let's move on."
Are they lying? Or are they delivering a political statement?
I would argue they are doing the latter, which, last time I checked, was what Tapper's show is all about.
Tapper's latest grandstanding is just another symptom of a much larger and more dangerous disease. The idea that our news hosts are supposed to be the sole arbiters of truth. That they and they alone shall be the gatekeepers of opinions and ideas and that they must remove any voice that doesn't measure up to their understanding of the truth.
Of course, their understanding of this truth is solely rooted in the issues and ideas they care most about, and they will hold politicians to a standard that they and only they are allowed to define and enforce.
In the meantime, I'll look forward to the next time Stacey Abrams is on with Tapper.
