Former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis has understandably taken much of the nation’s attention since its announcement almost two weeks ago. Since then, the conversation around the tragic news now includes CNN anchor Jake Tapper who, in his new book, accused the former president of minimizing his declining health in order to keep his political office. Now, the timing and intent of the book has raised questions about journalistic ethics in today’s landscape.

“Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous choice to Run Again” discusses existing critiques of the former president’s unwillingness to step down from the 2024 presidential election, possibly costing the democratic party a fitting candidate that could feasibly have ran against current President Donald Trump.

The book itself includes an alleged quote from Biden’s aide discussing the reasoning behind Biden running for a second term despite credible reports of his failing health: “He just had to win and then he could disappear for four years. He’d only have to show proof of life every once in a while.”

The Biden family has since denied the alleged quotes in Tapper’s book, while maintaining that he had not been diagnosed prior to last week, clarifying that he had also not been tested for prostate cancer in over a decade.

Biden took to X (formerly Twitter) with an optimistic message for those concerned: “Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”

A ‘strength in broken places’ is not a foreign concept to the Biden family, as Biden’s oldest son, Beau, passed away from brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46. Just 11 months ago, Biden opened up on the “Howard Stern Show” about the loss of Beau, garnering some bipartisan sympathy over the former president’s willingness to show vulnerability in the face of tragic loss.

That widespread sympathy over Biden’s own track record of stark emotional honesty has driven a steady hand of criticism towards journalist Jake Tapper, who released his book within a week of Biden’s diagnosis. 

The subsequent criticism of Tapper in the wake of his book’s release is not just in relation to the timing however, but the fact that in the anchor/writer’s work for CNN, he had defended Biden’s health during reporting for the past two elections. 

Tapper has since taken some responsibility for that lack of coverage he provided as he anchored for CNN during the past election cycle, including a specific argument with Lara Trump circa 2020 where Tapper defended then President Biden.

Tapper recently told NPR, “Look, she was right, and I was wrong… I look back at that exchange, and not just that, but my coverage in general – with humility. I don’t – I mean, I did cover this. I can point to times, where, you know, I asked him this, or I asked him that, or I pointed this out to this person or whatever.”

With the awareness of this criticism looming, Tapper continued his interviews to market “Original Sin”, claiming on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” that “[Biden’s health scandal] may be even worse than Watergate,” referring to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s legendary reporting of the Watergate scandal that eventually led to then-President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

The reference to the Watergate story and Woodward may contain an unintended layer of legitimacy, as Woodward himself was criticized just five years ago for a similar issue over his 2020 Trump exposé, titled “Rage”. 

During the 2020 election cycle, Woodward garnered accusations of greed when it was revealed that the veteran journalist sat on important information for the sake of increased book sales. In both examples, Woodward and Tapper seemingly held off on their journalistic responsibility to inform the public, in order to attain an exclusivity in their upcoming tell-alls.

The timeline of negating – then profiting from – news of the former president’s health decline was expounded on by comedian and “Daily Show” host, Jon Stewart, who held Tapper to task by reminding the viewers of his primary role as a journalist and news anchor. “… How weird it is that the news is selling you a book about news they should have told you was news a year ago for free,” Stewart exclaimed. 

From there, Stewart referred to a handful of CNN broadcasts that reported Biden’s recent stage four prostate cancer diagnosis in the same breath as advertisements for Tapper’s book. 

The throughline between such a dark diagnosis for a living president and the direct profit of a journalist has been the prevailing criticism from neighboring television personalities, some of whom called for a similar scrutiny paid to the sitting president.

Biden was most recently seen at his grandson’s high school graduation this past week, and has assured the public he and his family will keep the nation up to date on the news of his health as it is released.

*Liv Lyons has been an editor for the Thunderword since 2023. Their short story blog, “Loser Pulp“, is released twice a month.