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Tapper To Sanford Aide: NBC Spot On Missing Guv Was "Slimy" And "Insulting"

Yesterday we told you about how the conservative media sucked up to Mark Sanford's office by calling stories about the governor's disappearance overblown -- even while the gov was still AWOL.

But it looks like it wasn't just the acknowledged right-wingers who were denigrating the story to Sanford's aides. The State has written up a few more of the emails, and look what they found:

ABC News White House reporter Jake Tapper e-mailed Sawyer twice on June 23, both to note coverage of competitor NBC.

With a subject line of "NBC spot was slimy," Tapper e-mailed Sawyer a "Today" show transcript of Sanford coverage, calling it "insulting." Later, Tapper forwarded Sawyer a Twitter post [this one -- TPMmuckraker] by "Meet The Press" host David Gregory.

Jeff Schneider, a vice president at ABC News, said Tapper was "carrying some water for producers who knew he had a relationship with the governor's office."

Oh, just carrying some water for producers, you say? Well, never mind then.

The paper also reveals that the Fox news staffer who wrote the sycophantic email we told you about yesterday, saying he found the "media frenzy" around the story "absolutely ridiculous" was Griff Jenkins.

One prominent conservative blogger also offered his help. Erick Erickson of Red State emailed to say:

If he wants something more personal for the blog to push back, I'm happy to help.

That turned out well, of course.


46 Comments

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Your liberal media!
Slurp.

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Mr. Tapper's actions alone prove the old adage that predominantly, mainstream television news "editors", "producers" and "reporters" (in particular those revolving around Washington, D.C.) are eager Hoors when it comes to servicing the Right.

But, you knew that.

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Tapper has been a right wing shill for a long time.

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I used to read his stuff somewhere back in the late nineties. Did he write for Salon when they first started? I thought at the time that he wasn't half bad, but now, holy moly.

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Tapper was "carrying some water for producers who knew he had a relationship with the governor's office." This reminds me of the telephone conversation scene in All the President's Men between the WaPo reporter and a Watergate conspirator. The conspirator tried to play on his "relationship" with the reporter, but the reporter responded "What relationship? We don't have a relationship." Once upon a time reporters had contacts with politician's staffs, not personal relationships with them. That distinction helped them do their jobs right.
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Tapper has always been a vacuous little narcissist. He's probably reading these posts right now, thinking up what to Twitter next. I doubt there's a conviction anywhere in his head.

He'll swing back and forth between currying favor from the right and left, sending little notes like this one for the rest of his career.

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So, who the heck is Griff Jenkins? Someone who writes things like this:

"Some in the media have accused the new Obama administration of waging a campaign of fear to get their stimulus package passed… but still, numbers don’t lie.

http://www.foxnewsradio.com/category/blogs/griff-jenkins/#ixzz0LL3qh8QK&D

Some in the media... campaign of fear...

I'd say he's a Karl Rove wannabee, mini-me.
And, Govenor, he's here to help.

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To quote the film TommyBoy:

"And that's when the whores come in..."

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Great reference. In general, Tapper seems like a Paul Barish-Burns (Rob Lowe's character in Tommy Boy).

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"...running around doing their little behind shake for the menfolk."

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The fluid that Tapper is carrying- in his mouth- is not water.

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You always want to carry some water when your toe tappin' your way down the Appalachian Trail!

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"Carrying some water for producers?!?!"

Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?

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Thanks, runfastandwin. I just wet myself laughing.

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To paraphrase Tapper: My sense of smell is excellent, just ask my family, and I can tell from this brief encounter, Tapper has not given up whoring.

Tapper, who is the one who decided Obama's comments during the campaign were "playing the race card" has played the stupid card once again.
Not to worry though, he still has a full deck of them.

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That should be a fireable offense for Tapper.

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"fireable offense?" who's going to fire tapper?

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"fireable offense?" who's going to fire tapper?

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Just because ABC News won't, it doesn't make what he did any more tolerable for a journalist.

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I agree. News organizations that play this way should be called what they are: corrupt. And no, I don't care if it's always been that way.

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I mean haven't these guys realized yet that everything they say or write will end up on the internet? It's fine for us, we can say whatever we want and no one even cares, but these guys have careers to worry about. How many times can a "journalist" be so completely wrong and still retain even a shred of credibility? This is why the MSM is dying, they can't figure out how to report the truth any more. Colbert nailed it, write it down and go home, stenographers the whole bunch.

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God bless The State and the FOIA. Did the hacktastic Jake Tapper ever imagine the day that a tool he is supposed to be deploying would reveal what a tool he is?

Does he get to keep his front row seat and always called on status in the briefing room? Can we bring in more bloggers, please?

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It has been a rule of thumb for I don't know how long, that you never know who might end up reading your email. I've seen delightful love notes go astray, I've seen negotiating points accidentally included in the rat's nest of quoted quoted quotes that appears in many emails, and I've received emails for people with the same last name several notches above my pay grade.

Even sending mail to my wife, who is similarly careful, I am still circumspect, because you never know.

Or as we used to say at a former employer, around the time that the Microsoft emails were showing up in court cases: "never plot world domination in email".

And for that matter, be careful what you say with a cell phone in your pocket. We have two friends whose butts call us often enough.

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It is too bad you cannot do a FOIA request to determine what e-mails and phone messages went between Tapper and the RNC/McCain campaign the night Jake worked late to post that Obama had played the race card. Unless, of course, he e-mailed McCain's Senate office.

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Yeah, Sanford wasn't the only one who was hiking the Appalachian Trail. (And by "hiking the Appalachian Trail," I mean, of course, "having an illicit affair.")

I must say, these email FOIA requests bring a whole new meaning to "Media Whores Online"...

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So, Tapper's not really a reporter then, but a water carrier. That makes things clearer--and puts him in the class of Jeff Gannon, just with better credentials.

And, Erick Erickson is nothing but a poor man's Fred Hiatt.

And they wonder why the mainsteam media outlets are failing...

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Gunga Dim?

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Tapper was always a troll for the right-wing.

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Fourth Estate in foreclosure. Auction to follow.

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Open letter to all,

Is it me or should ABC revoke Jake Tapper as white house press corp reporter?

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That would require ABC to actually care about journalistic integrity.

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If Jake Tapper's a journalist, I'm a professional basketball player -- and I'm 5 feet 6 and 48 years old.

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So? Doesn't John Stockton hold the all time NBA assist record?

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I love it. Jake Tapper is exposed as for what he is and he is such a sniveling coward that he lays the blame off on his producers. So he is both a sycophant and a liar. Yuck.

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Yea, yea, yea it was all "slimy". Especially that "liberal" reporter from The State,staking out the Governor's car at the airport and "ambushing" him when he got off the plane from Argentina.

Ever get the feeling these guys knew what was up beforehand and were trying to help keep a lid on it before a real reporter brought the truth out into the open?

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Cf. Attaturk's post over at Atrios' house this AM.

"All the wingnut talking points that're fit to print."

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That post headline seems to be missing a comma:

... NBC Spot On, Missing Guv Was "Slimy" And "Insulting"

There. Fixed it.

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Having been in the media, I can tell you there's a huge advantage to being in power. Most editors are desperate to cuddle up to incumbents because they fear "the other guy" will get the story if they aren't sycophantic enough.

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There once was a guy named Tapper,
Who wasn't much good as a rapper;
So he took up reporting,
While rarely resorting,
To journalism and that was the capper.

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... and his stories wound up in the crapper.
... he resorted to being a toe tapper.

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I urge people to check out Tapper's tweets.

He is whining that the State was the only paper that knew about Argentina....so that excuses him kissing up to Sanford.

One wonders what would have happened if he pulled a similar stunt with a liberal.

Apparently he has signed up to post on KOS, for what reason, is beyond me.

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Sadly, if that reporter from the State was smarter, she'd have waited until his press conference to see if he would repeat his bullshit story to the masses. Then she would have really had a bigger story by asking him about her findings in public. I'll bet she's always going to wonder if he would have come clean had she not called his office after speaking with him at the airport. As for Jerk Tapper, I knew he was a fraud when he admitted going on a date with Monica Lewinsky the day before she blew up..so to speak. He's real garbage and clearly jealous that David Gregory has MTP and he's still shilling for the Repblicans on abc. Suck it Jake. Monica can show you how!

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Well good.What else would it take for people to realize as many posters here have done that Tapper has always been a wing nut trying to fly under the Radar.

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Tapper is a slime ball and sleazy himself.

Always was a dirtbag GOP shill.

Thanks for outting this creep.


His Tweets are funny because now he is trying to backpedal about it

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Tapper has no journalistic ethics!

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