One of America’s largest issues with the state of journalism in 2023 is a perceived bias by those presenting the news. CNN’s Jake Tapper is cognizant of that bias.
During an interview with Esquire, Tapper said that while the goal for most news organizations is to present the news accurately, everyone has a bias.
“I think it’s always an interesting debate because, obviously, no human being is purely objective. We all carry with us the biases of our lives and our experiences,” admitted Tapper. “But that said, my show is not about my views. My show is about the news…And when we have a panel, we want to make sure that there are conservatives, we want to make sure that there are progressives. We want to have a debate.
“But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be trying to be the most fair news show that we can, presenting the news in as accurate a manner as possible,” Tapper continued. “I mean, I see clips from other channels in which they’re describing American politicians in the most pejorative ways possible, not based on descriptions of what they’re doing, but just based on trying to create enemies. That is a business model, and no doubt it’s a successful one, but it’s not news.”
Tapper has been the host of CNN’s The Lead for the past 10 years. During that time, he has reported on numerous different types of stories and added that he believed the way news covered political figures changed during the 2016 presidential race.
“I’m probably more willing to say ‘That’s not true’ not, ‘That was a lie’. Lying is a word that implies knowledge that the person is saying something not true,” Tapper said. “But it’s probably because former President Trump was so willing to say things that weren’t true.”
He later pointed to Trump’s reference to a National Enquirer story that Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Tapper also added that President Biden is “pretty fast and loose with facts on occasion”.
