THIS IS HUGE: Jake Tapper just dug up old Fox News clips to argue against Trump’s press ban, and the receipts came straight from Fox’s own former stars.
On Tuesday’s edition of The Lead, Tapper made his position clear.
“The White House does not get to dictate who covers the White House,” Tapper said.
He backed it up with footage from 2009, when Obama’s White House tried to exclude Fox News from interviews with an administration official. CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC protested and refused to participate unless Fox was included, forcing the White House to back down.
Tapper played clips of Fox personalities from that exact moment.
Sean Hannity, still a Fox host today, argued in 2009: “The administration doesn’t wanna hear what we have to say. They want to silence us. They want us to shut up.”
“Amen, brother,” Tapper responded, noting he was at ABC News at the time and stood with Fox then.
Then came Bill O’Reilly.
“You can’t have the most powerful people in the country, the Obama administration, basically dictating who covers the news,” O’Reilly said in 2009. “President Obama is trying to exercise his power to intimidate.”
“Bill O’Reilly was absolutely right then,” Tapper said, “although he has the opposite take now. If you stand for principles only when they benefit you, you’re not actually in possession of those principles.”
Tapper closed with a clip of Glenn Beck accusing journalists of becoming “cowards” willing to “play along to get along” rather than serve as watchdogs.
This all comes as CNN, MS NOW, and Politico have already sued over Trump’s ban, and all five major networks, including Fox News, have suspended White House pool coverage in protest.
Tapper’s point cuts both ways. This isn’t a partisan principle. It’s a First Amendment one. And plenty of current Fox voices, including Jonathan Turley, Jacqui Heinrich, and Brit Hume, have already said so.
