CNN’s Jake Tapper is on a roll once again, saying that conservatives sit in the same group as Disney and the NBA in ignoring China’s human rights abuses.
“Future generations will be ashamed to read how companies that consider themselves progressive such as the @NBA and @Disney joined with conservatives including @realDonaldTrump to sanction concentration camps and human rights abuses by the Chinese government against Muslims,” Tapper said, promoting a clip of his show blasting Disney over the film Mulan.
Future generations will be ashamed to read how companies that consider themselves progressive such as the @NBA and @Disney joined with conservatives including @realDonaldTrump to sanction concentration camps and human rights abuses by the Chinese government against Muslims. https://t.co/Z64aMTbNe9
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) September 13, 2020
When conservatives pushed back, Tapper brushed the criticism away, claiming that he wasn’t “referring to all conservatives.” He also later added that Trump had been more willing to combat Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, including recent sanctions, after citing John Bolton’s book as the source of his criticism.
It’s not conservatives who have been going to bat for the Chinese spyware app TikTok: That would be tech reporters at outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. It wasn’t conservatives who joined LeBron James in parroting CCP propaganda during the NBA’s Hong Kong debacle. And it’s safe to assume it isn’t conservatives running Disney and other Hollywood studios that grovel before Xi for box-office access.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has led the way in the administration pushing back on the Chinese Communist Party, as the administration has repeatedly signed off on sanctions over Chinese human rights abuses. Staunch conservatives in the Senate such as Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Marsha Blackburn, and Josh Hawley have been vocal leaders in holding the CCP accountable. And, while the Democratic convention featured China shill Mike Bloomberg while New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo absolved the CCP of blame for the pandemic, Republicans made their stance on China clear.
“The CCP is an enemy of humanity,” Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng said under the lights of the GOP convention. “It is terrorizing its own people, and it is threatening the well-being of the world. The U.S. must use its values of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law to gather a coalition of other democracies to stop China’s aggression.”
It’s not surprising that Tapper would take an opportunity to bash conservatives in the face of evidence. He won an award for his show trial in Parkland, Florida, where he allowed Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel to escape blame for his department’s failures while letting Parkland residents smear conservative commentator Dana Loesch and Sen. Marco Rubio as equals to a school shooter. Tapper is a partisan, after all, which also helps to explain why he discouraged Republican Sean Parnell from running against a vulnerable Democrat in the House.
Tapper is someone who gets credit from some conservatives for being the closest thing to a fair anchor at CNN. But at the end of the day, he’s a liberal, and one who is playing the increasingly partisan game that Jeff Zucker wants his CNN talent to play. Tapper deserves some credit for taking Disney to task over China, but it will mean more when he can do it without turning it into a political attack.
