You can Barely Read a Teleprompter and Now You’ve Written A Book?

I tuned into CNN this morning to get the latest news of the Singapore summit. I try not to watch CNN anymore because it has basically become nonstop nonsense fronting as “Breaking News”. This morning I did get a speck of news, but it seemed like an infomercial for Jake Tapper’s new book. In fact, it would seem that CNN has prioritized selling Tapper’s book called The Hellfire Club much higher than anything happening or that might happen on the Korean Peninsula. Now, Tapper’s book is actually well reviewed in the Washington Post, but it is wholly inappropriate and inauthentic for him and his colleagues to be pitching the book while conveying news about the most important summit of our time.

Then as we closed in on the 9 AM hour, Alyson Camerota ended her show by pitching her book, Amanda Wakes Up. And, this book also has some decent reviews.

This all raises a question of appropriateness and reflects on the issue of how serious of an organization CNN is.

The low point, of course, came many years ago when Rick Sanchez was still reading the teleprompter for CNN; at that time, he used every interview to push his pile of paper, and even turned interviews into book promotions. Compared to Sanchez, Tapper and Camerota are serious journalists. And, they may have written very good books. But, they absolutely shouldn’t be pitching their side activities in the middle of a tremendously serious report.