QOTD: Jake Tapper
by digby
After politely listening to his repeated lies and innuendo about Edward Snowden, Tapper patiently explained to Hugh Hewitt what the job of a journalist is :
HH: And the question is, we don’t have to know this for sure. You and I can’t. We don’t have the clearances. But isn’t it a rational conclusion that what he gave away greatly injured the national security interests of the United States?
JT: I know that that’s what the U.S. Government says. I choose to make it my job to not automatically believe what the U.S. Government says just because the government says it.
HH: That is also said by, that’s also said by a lot of people outside of the government who are familiar with, perhaps have practiced in the past, the intelligence community. It’s not just the United States Government. It’s pretty much everyone who’s ever had a security clearance that I know of, isn’t it?
JT: Hugh, my job is to be skeptical, skeptical of people like Edward Snowden, and skeptical of the U.S. Government. I am, my job is to not take for granted when somebody says oh, this is all just a made up phony scandal or what this person did put the U.S. Government at risk, and the American people at risk.
HH: So you won’t call him a traitor?
JT: No, I don’t call him a traitor. I don’t call him a whistleblower. We call him a leaker on the show. And it’s not my job. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of my job to take what the government says at face value and say this is the truth because the government says it, and the government never lies.
One wouldn’t think this attitude would be rare among top tier journalists, but it is.
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