Aaron Rodgers is a quirky dude with a lot of weird habits. He openly discusses using psychedelics, flirts with conspiracy theories, and has locked himself in an entirely dark room for four days. He also happens to be one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the NFL.
There are plenty of reasons to dislike or be critical of Rodgers. To begin with, he hasn’t been to a Super Bowl since 2010, even as he has had record-breaking years as a passer with the Green Bay Packers. He comes across as a bit of a diva, and his health habits are bizarre. But on Wednesday, CNN reporters Jake Tapper and Pamela Brown published a disgusting and blatantly agenda-driven hit piece designed to smear Rodgers for what he said in private a decade ago.
The day before, reports surfaced that Rodgers, now the quarterback for the New York Jets, is on the short list to be independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate. It’s a ticket that has the potential to hurt the reelection bid of President Joe Biden and lead to the second election of former President Donald Trump.
So what did Brown and Tapper do? They reported that in a private conversation with Brown and an anonymous source nearly 11 years ago, Rodgers had repeatedly claimed the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 was fake.
Of course, Tapper and Brown had no interest in surfacing this story in the decade prior as Rodgers racked up MVP awards and repeatedly lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs, but the minute there seems to be a modicum of interest on Rodgers’s part in politics, he is immediately tarred and feathered.
There is absolutely no reason for a reporter to publish a story based on the comments someone made a decade ago in a private setting and then rely on an anonymous source to bolster it. A reasonable person could just as easily conclude that such a story was fabricated as conclude it to be true.
To begin with, no reporter practicing good ethics should be writing a story about a conversation they had 11 years ago without a recording of said conversation. And nowhere does Brown or Tapper suggest that they have a recording of the purported conversation. It allegedly took place at an after-party for the Kentucky Derby in 2013, a soiree likely to have included many intoxicating beverages and taken place at night. Thus, if Brown is relying on her memory, the fact that there may have been influence from alcohol at a late-night party that took place 11 years ago is perfectly reasonable grounds to question her recollection of events.
This is not to say that Sandy Hook trutherism should be tolerated by anyone aspiring to public service. But that doesn’t mean Tapper and Brown’s “reporting” on Rodgers is above board. It was clearly agenda-driven and lacking in journalistic ethics. And it did not take long for Rodgers to hit back.
“As I’m on the record saying in the past, what happened in Sandy Hook was an absolute tragedy,” Rodgers wrote on X. “I am not and have never been of the opinion that the events did not take place. Again, I hope that we learn from this and other tragedies to identify the signs that will allow us to prevent unnecessary loss of life. My thoughts and prayers continue to remain with the families affected along with the entire Sandy Hook community.”
If Tapper and Brown had bothered to look, they would have seen that Rodgers had made public statements lamenting the shooting at the time it took place.
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“I hope that we can learn from this and look for the signs more and not ever have something like this happen and keep this on our minds because these are things that affect all of us directly or intellectually, and this needs to be something that we learn from,” the quarterback said at the time.
That’s a pretty reasonable and compassionate statement from a celebrity athlete who sees a role in helping people heal following a tragedy. But Rodgers cannot be reasonable and compassionate if he poses a threat to Biden’s reelection prospects. And so Tapper, Brown, and CNN concocted a cheap and unethical smear designed to protect their favorite president and ensure Trump does not return to the White House. For two people who consider themselves to be honest reporters, they ought to be horribly ashamed of themselves. They had better hope no one has heard them utter anything uncouth or regrettable behind closed doors 12 years ago. If so, a reporter would be more than justified to disclose it.
