The Actual Expertise of the Mainstream Media

I'm sure you've heard of Jake Tapper.  He's a CNN reporter with a wonderful reputation in the mainstream media.  People read his reports every day, so it's worth taking a moment to look at his true level of expertise.

I say this because earlier this week, Jake decided to give away one of his sources in order to better inform his readers.  On Twitter, Tapper sent a simple message which said, "For more on Syria, follow" a particular person's Twitter account.  It seems that is where Jake Tapper gets much of his insight on this major Middle East problem.

Here's the scoop, however.  The person whose account Tapper told people to follow is a seven year old boy living in Turkey.  Tapper, obviously, did not know that because when it was pointed out by others, Jake immediately deleted the original tweet.

Many times, I have heard people say that while they find some things they read in the mainstream media to be hard to accept, they still assume that the reporters know more about the subject than they do themselves.  If Jake Tapper gets his news about Syria from a child in Turkey, it would seem that such an assumption about the level of his knowledge is a poor one.