When Journalism Sells Its Soul for a Book Deal
I didn’t plan to write last night. I planned to read and relax. But once again, the media landscape served up something so ethically bankrupt, I can’t let it go. What I saw yesterday on CNN wasn’t journalism it was opportunism.
Let me be clear: I’m not a journalist. I write opinion. I try to be accurate, but I don’t wear the press pass. That title belongs to people who once chose truth over profit and public interest over personal branding. But those people are becoming harder to find.
For weeks, CNN has been running what amounts to built-in promotional segments for ‘Original Sin’ written by anchor Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. Not labelled as ads, just conveniently timed “discussions” and “buzz-building” that blurred every line between news and marketing. The book, which drops today, centers on allegations that Joe Biden’s declining mental and physical health during his presidency was known inside the White House and deliberately concealed from the public. If Biden’s health was newsworthy, and you had inside information, why wait until book launch day to unleash it? The answer is obvious: this wasn’t about informing the public. It was about cashing in.
That’s not journalism. That’s PR with better lighting.
And yesterday Jake Tapper and assorted other CNN anchors spent the day interviewing oncologists and urologists about Biden’s newly revealed cancer diagnosis. The day before the book launch day. Let that sink in.
An anchor with a financial and reputational stake in a book about Biden’s health and presidency, interviewing medical professionals live on air about Biden’s health. One doctor from Yale refused to be dragged into the spectacle. He calmly explained that prostate cancer can progress quickly and without symptoms, and that PSA testing isn’t routinely recommended for men over 70.
But Tapper kept pressing. Kept prodding. Kept trying to extract something headline-worthy that would support the thesis of his book. And here’s the question no one at CNN seemed to ask: Why was he even on air? Jake Tapper should not have been there yesterday, and he absolutely should not have been assigned to cover Biden’s diagnosis on the day before his own book about Biden’s hidden health issues was released. The ethical breach is glaring.
To be fair, CNN isn’t the only one failing us. Canadian and American media alike have turned interviews into performance art. Last week, Vassy Kapelos, of CTV, someone I usually admire pressed Prime Minister Mark Carney three times on his “feelings” about trusting Donald Trump. He answered. “We will work together.” But she kept pushing. “Do you trust him?” “My answer stands,” he said. Because clarity doesn’t trend. Drama does.
We talk a lot about the pressure placed on journalists by political actors, especially Donald Trump. But let’s stop pretending that’s the only problem. Many journalists are complicit. This isn’t just external, it’s internal. These are editorial choices. To delay, sensationalize, monetize.
Contrast that with people like Ira Rosen, the 60 Minutes producer who resigned from CBS rather than compromise his integrity under political pressure. That’s what ethics looks like. That’s what saying no looks like.
What CNN did today wasn’t just a misstep; it was a betrayal of trust, of standards, and of a man battling cancer with grace. It’s not difficult to see when someone’s pain is being turned into a talking point. And before anyone thinks I have developed an afinity for Fox News don’t worry that conversation isn’t a social media post, it’s a fiction novel.
I still pay for subscriptions to outlets I trust, because I want journalism to survive. But what I saw today wasn’t journalism. It was a circus. And Tapper wasn’t the ringmaster. He was the carny selling the fixed games.
This may be the moment cable news hit bottom for me. Not because of partisanship. Not because of spin. But because it took something so deeply human, illness, mortality and tried to turn it into a product launch.
If this is what the industry thinks truth is worth, I want no part of it. The newsroom is no longer where stories are told. It’s where they’re sold. And yesterday, the price was integrity.
Nancy's Notes 