CNN host Jake Tapper schooled Donald Trump Wednesday on the mission of journalists after the president targeted the news network and other outlets for their reporting on the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. (Watch the video below.)
Trump called the media “scum” and “fake” for correctly reporting that a preliminary Pentagon assessment said the strikes perhaps set back Iran’s nuke development by a few months ― but did not obliterate its program as Trump claimed. The president also zeroed in on CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, who was the first to surface the finding, demanding that CNN throw her out “like a dog.”
In an impassioned address, Tapper outlined Trump’s mode of attacking the messenger and branding outlets that reported the analysis as unpatriotic and disrespectful to the military.
The anchor reminded Trump of the Fourth Estate’s goal.
“Our obligation as journalists is not to praise President Trump, or protect his feelings, or to disparage him, or to praise him for that matter,” Tapper said. “Our obligation is to report facts. In this case, the fact is that an initial DIA intel assessment out of [Defense] Secretary Pete Hegseth’s own Pentagon exists. And that’s not going to change, no matter how many insults Trump levels.”
After a history lesson on government deception in the Vietnam War, Tapper concluded: “We don’t know yet whether this administration is accurately portraying what happened in Iran or not. We don’t know. That’s the point of publishing what we know, that the government learns, once we learn it. … The news media needs to press for facts, even if it’s uncomfortable. Even if, as Americans and as humans, there is a personal instinct to rally around the flag. Asking questions is literally our job. Demanding facts and answers instead of just taking a president’s word for it. History has taught us that the most pro-service member action we can take is to ask questions of our leaders, especially in times of war. That, for journalists, is the height of patriotism.”
