Jake Tapper On Media Bias, White House Press Briefings And CNN

By Alex Weprin 

CNN anchor Jake Tapper participated in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” discussion today, and it was illuminating.

Tapper weighed in on politics, the differences between CNN and ABC, media bias and much more.

On the daily White House press briefing:

Advertisement

The White House press briefings are quite often useless. The spokespeople are there to not make news. I get a lot more reporting done away from cameras, at least when it comes to the White House. I have never had the desire to jump up to the podium, and I will leave the second part of your sentence dangling there enticingly.

On whether he believes there is media bias:

Yes I do but I also think it’s more complicated than just liberal bias. I think there are a lot of hard-working reporters in NYC and DC who have never fired a gun, or never worked a 9-5 manual labor job, or lived in the middle of the country, or worried about their next paycheck, or have anyone in their family who serves in the military and I think that creates a cultural bias. But I also think there are a lot of reporters who work to counter that and understand the limitations of their own realities. But yes, I do think there is bias. Reluctant to name names though because I try to be collegial.

Advertisement