CNN’s Jake Tapper seems to have an unlikely backer in his bizarre back-and-forth with the conservative media over his recent use of the Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar.”
Glenn Beck.
The former Fox Newser and The Blaze founder/host commented on his program this morning that the recent attacks by the conservative media against The Lead host for his use of the phrase are “stupid.”
“That story came from InfoWars and then it ended up on Fox. It was a stupid and completely wrong thing. But people spread it. Agreed with it. And it’s because of an unreasonable hatred of the media,” he said to Bill O’Reilly, who was a guest on Beck’s program.
The saga Beck is referencing is Daily Caller reporter Nick Givas, Fox News’s Sean Hannity, and Breitbart reporter John Nolte attacking Tapper in recent days, making the inaccurate claim that he seemed to praise New York terror attack suspect Sayfullo Saipov during the Oct. 31 edition of The Lead, fewer than two hours after the attack transpired.
Givas wrote that Tapper “felt the need to immediately compliment the Islamic phrase Allahu Akbar — saying people said it in ‘beautiful’ circumstances.'”
Tapper’s actual statement on Tuesday’s broadcast: “The Arabic chant ‘Allahu Akbar, God is great’; sometimes said under the most beautiful of circumstances and too often we hear it being said in moments like this.” (“This” referring to the terror attack)
Beck would later defend Tapper’s work during the Obama administration, after O’Reilly suggested that Tapper was a biased reporter.
“I believe Jake Tapper was doing all of those things during the Obama administration,” Beck said. “Tapper and [Major] Garrett were a couple that were really good at actually holding the feet to the fire at the White House during the Obama administration and on CNN the only one was Jake Tapper.”
“I think he’s getting a raw deal now because I like people who are hated by both parties,” Beck continued.
On Wednesday evening, Hannity continued to reference the story, and referred to Tapper as, “liberal fake news CNN’s fake Jake Tapper.” He later said: “Hey Jake, maybe that’s why you have low ratings…Tell your audience the truth.”
Regarding ratings, Tapper hosted the No. 1 cable news program in his 4 p.m. timeslot on Wednesday among adults 25-54. We’ll know shortly if he was able to replicate that performance with Thursday’s broadcast.
Nov. 1, 2017 / Adults 25-54 (000)
