A CNN political commentator has hit back at reports that he was using an iPad on air, instead of the Microsoft Surface he was supposed to be using.
The gaffe occurred during the coverage for the 2014 Mid-Term elections, when it was revealed that CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper and others were furiously, err, tapping away at iPads behind the sold wall of Surface Pro 3s that Microsoft had issued the network.
Tapper doesn’t deny that he was using an iPad, but argues that he was just using it for tweeting, while happily using his Microsoft tablet for everything else.
“I liked [the Surface] fine, I just wanted to keep the screen up with exit polls,” Tapper argued on Twitter, branding the online response “idiotic” and a “false meme.”
Tapper’s tweets are below, hopefully sent from an approved device:
@mattsheffield I used both. Used my iPad for tweeting.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 6, 2014
@mattsheffield I liked it fine, I just wanted to keep the screen up with exit polls. This is a false meme
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 6, 2014
@mattsheffield it’s false and idiotic, other than that, though, it’s great. — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 6, 2014
This isn’t the first time a rival company to Apple has experienced a screw-up when trying to promote its devices over Cupertino’s.
Microsoft sponsors the NFL and provides team with Surface tablets on the sideline to review plays, although commentators have a hard time remembering to not call it an iPad. Samsung, too, has suffered embarrassing gaffes, such as when Ellen DeGeneres was paid to appear on-stage with a Galaxy Note at the Oscars, only to ditch it in favor of the iPhone as soon as she headed backstage.
What do you think bout Jake Tapper’s explanation? Personally it brings to mind that line about protesting too much.
Via: iMore
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
15 responses to “CNN anchor denies using a Microsoft Surface as an iPad stand”
What do you mean “sure he was”? If you watched the coverage (and not just a cherrypicked moment in time photo), you could see he was using both devices throughout the night.
He he he, this site’s bread and butter is promoting Apple – ala FOX News style ‘journalism’… and most contributors are fan boys, so take what is said or posted here with a grain of salt.
And yet you come here. So what does that make you then?
It’s called “cult of Mac”, their slogan isn’t fair and balanced… Theirs nothing wrong with Fox News style journalism when you clearly label it as just that. I think the only thing Fox News could do to gain any respect from somebody with a 3 digit IQ is change its name to “cult of right wing straight old white christian males”
“Cult of Honkey” would be better.
I’m just curious what the hell Nathan Lane is doing there in drag.
Except there’s a photo of a Surface propping up an iPad. Pics or it didn’t happen. It happened.
He got caught in the act on national TV and now it’s the Great iPad Coverup. It really doesn’t matter, though. It’s not as if Microsoft is going to make much headway with bribing companies to use their Surface tablets. Microsoft figures if you can’t sell them then give them away as a marketing move. The Surface tablets are already known as iPad knock-offs, so anything Microsoft does with them are simply helping to sell more iPads.
Poor excuse. Maybe no one told Mr. Tapper that the Surface is “The most productive tablets on the planet.” ;) First picture on Surface site shows multi-tasking with Twitter.
Maybe it’s annoying to multitask with the Surface.
I wonder if M$ paid CNN $400 million as well (as they did the NFL) to use the SP?
“You better go tweet a denial fast – our sponsor is pissed.”
Everyone. Just stop watching. CNN is wholly owned by corporations. Fox News is owned by the Republican Party. And MSNBC is all over the place. They all are making this country worse and should be ignored.
Never mind that man behind the tablet! I am the Great & Powerful…
Do you really have to put that much intensity into typing, err, tapping 140 characters? Wow!
2 screens instead of one. Makes sense. What you can’t do on that silly iPad thing, he does on his Surface Pro. Thats why the Surface Pro is compared to a mac book air and not the iPad. Should he snag a Surface 2 instead of the iPad. Sure. But not too many people have the faith.