#TapperDirtFile

Submission 14,155

About

#TapperDirtFile is a satirical hashtag containing humorous, innocuous factoids about CNN anchor Jake Tapper, which were inspired by rumors that he was being targeted by the GOP for aggressively questioning Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway in early February 2017.

Origin

On February 7th, 2017, Tapper questioned Conway about why United States President Donald Trump had yet to offer sympathy to Canadians following a shooting that occurred at a Quebec mosque the previous month (shown below).

The following day, the news site Axios^[2] reported that an anonymous source claimed "Republican operatives" were urging a conservative blog to write "hit pieces" on Tapper in retaliation for the Conway interview. That day, Tapper jokingly launched the hashtag "#TapperDirtFile"^[7] in response to the rumors, featuring various innocuous factoids about his past (shown below).^[1]

Spread

That day, other Twitter users posted parody facts about Tapper's lifestyle and history along with the "#TapperDirtFile" hashtag (shown below). Meanwhile, Twitter created a Moments page highlighting notable #TapperDirtFile tweets.^[4]

Hoaxes

On February 23rd, the @OMFGNN Twitter feed posted a 2007 recording of Dog the Bounty Hunter's racist rant falsely attributed to Jake Tapper. The tweet was subsequently deleted, but the video was reuploaded to the TRexstasy YouTube channel (shown below).

That day, Tapper tweeted that the "alt-Reich" was falsely attributing the audio to him (shown below). Meanwhile, the news site RawStory^[3] published an article about the hoax titled "Gullible Trump supporters go nuts over fake audio of ‘Jake Tapper’s racist rant’."

Following Wikileaks release of the Vault 7 Leaks on March 7th, a photoshopped tweet appearing to call for the assassination of Julian Assange was falsely attributed to Tapper, with many claiming he had deleted the tweet shortly after posting it (shown below).^[6]