CNN Rules Change After Jake Tapper Book Promo Fiasco: Report
What To Know
- CNN has reportedly implemented new policies restricting on-air personalities from repeatedly promoting their book projects.
- The reported policy changes comes after Jake Tapper heavily promoted his 2025 book Original Sin on the network.
- Tapper and other CNN anchors saw a decline in viewership around the time of Original Sin‘s May 2025 release.
Jake Tapper is reportedly the reason for new changes made to CNN’s policies for on-air personalities.
According to a report published by Breaker on Tuesday, February 17, CNN changed its standards guide earlier this month after Tapper heavily promoted his May 2025 book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, on the network’s shows.
Per The Daily Beast, the new policy reportedly forbids CNN hosts and personalities from continuously promoting their book projects beyond one on-air appearance tied to the book’s release. The author reportedly needs to discuss the promotion with the network’s leadership team in advance. Additionally, the hosts are reportedly prohibited from sharing QR codes or websites to drive book sales and must inform CNN if out-of-house PR teams are being used to promote the book.
The goal of the reported changes is to avoid mixing new and advertising content, even if a product is promoted by a CNN personality.
The Daily Beast reports that Tapper is unhappy with the alleged policy changes and is looking to discuss them with CNN’s CEO Mark Thompson. Neither CNN nor Tapper has publicly commented on the reported promotional policy changes.
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Tapper co-authored Original Sin with fellow journalist Alex Thompson. The book explores former President Joe Biden‘s final days in office and how his alleged health decline led him to withdraw from the 2024 presidential election, which ended with President Donald Trump beating former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Tapper heavily promoted the book on his own show, The Lead with Jake Tapper, and other CNN programs. Per The Daily Beast, the report claimed that Tapper’s promotion rubbed some people at CNN the wrong way and that some colleagues believe he received special treatment.
The book topped The New York Times bestseller list but coincided with a decrease in viewership for The Lead with Jake Tapper. According to May 2025 Nielsen ratings figures, the show dropped 25 percent in viewership from the year prior, averaging 525,000 total viewers.
CNN anchors who also promoted Tapper’s book — such as Anderson Cooper, Kaitlan Collins, and Erin Burnett — also saw viewership decline. At the time, AdWeek reported that the network was down 18 percent in total viewership and down 21 percent in the 25-54 primetime demographic.
Tapper has published several books over the years, most recently Race Against Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War, published in October 2025. The book follows the story of U.S. prosecutors gathering evidence for the trial of a senior Al Qaeda terrorist.
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