Jake Tapper ping
FWIW.
I was an Uber driver a while back and sometime just prior to Trumps Victory in Nov. 2016 I picked up Jake Tapper’s head Writer at CNN’s main office in DC.
Jason something. But he did give me his phone number.
He was exhausted, not physically but mentally and for whatever reason he quickly told me what he did. I replied with a lyric from an ELO song “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends”. He replied “Exactly, but it’s soo much worse” “Covering Trump was all about the ratings” he expressed his frustration of being forced to cover Trump.
I asked him if he was familiar with the 1970’s movie “Network”, He seemed to recall the movie but wasn’t really sure about it. I told him to watch it again.
I told him that if CNN or any other network really wanted to increase their ratings they should attack the “Fake news, misreporting, outright lies and lies by omission being conducted by the other Media outlets. He asked or suggested that Fox had Howard Kurtz’s show, and I told him that nobody watches it because it’s not only boring, it’s child’s play.
I told him that they could create a massive audience by calling out other networks by name and showing their audience why those other networks are wrong. It would become this giant “soap-opera” of media personalities both defending and attacking each other. He loved the idea but felt that he was trapped by this machine.
Shortly before the ride ended I put on Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine”