2025 lookback: Media's credibility fractures again after Biden mental decline exposed

Tapper says Biden White House falsely portrayed legitimate videos of Biden as cheap fakes CNNs Jake Tapper discusses the Biden White Houses use of the term "cheap fakes" for legitimate video of the president last year. The media faced another reckoning in 2025 when details of former President Joe Biden’s apparent mental decline in office, and the cover-up orchestrated by his team, were revealed after years of pushback on the notion he wasn’t fit for office. CNN anchor Jake Tapper and journalist Alex Thompson co-wrote "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," an account of the cover-up that features high-level Democratic sources. The book, which was released in May, was mocked by critics who noted CNN and other mainstream outlets downplayed or were even hostile to the suggestion that Biden could be losing his grip before the infamous debate against President Donald Trump . Tapper’s network was among the most egregious offenders. Videos of Biden freezing up or appearing confused at various events went viral throughout 2024, but the White House aggressively pushed back, saying some of them were edited in a misleading fashion or didn't show what they purported. The legacy media embraced "cheap fakes" narrative depicting the videos of then-President Joe Biden as senile were manipulated by conservatives. (Getty Images) The term "cheap fakes" was popularized, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted from the podium that fact-checkers and mainstream outlets also embraced the term. CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz pushed the White House’s narrative last year about a video of Biden appearing to freeze up at a fundraiser with Jimmy Kimmel, saying Biden had merely "looked out at the crowd for a few seconds" before walking offstage with President Barack Obama , adding that "Republicans and right-leaning media outlets" "used this moment to say that President Biden froze." Moments later during a panel discussion, CNN commentator and former Kamala Harris adviser Jamal Simmons called Biden's fundraiser moment an "obviously selected video." "These are cheap fakes, [as] the White House and Biden people are calling them," Simmons told CNN's Erin Burnett. However, Tapper suggested he felt differently when promoting his book , which featured numerous anecdotes of Biden appearing confused, tired and out of step, all while his team publicly proclaimed he was completely fit. In one infamous moment confirmed by George Clooney , Biden appeared to forget who the famous actor was when they spoke face-to-face. "The Biden White House falsely - when people showed that clip and asked what was going on - said it was a ‘cheap fake.’ They did this all the time when there was video that seemed to show Biden acting in an odd or unusual, seemingly out-of-it way, they would call it a ‘cheap fake.’ It was not fake. It was actual video," Tapper said in May. Prior to Tapper’s about-face, CNN also cited experts expressing concern about "ageism," including in the aftermath of the Robert Hur report that portrayed Biden as forgetful and...

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