SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
jake tapper
False Accusation Against Tlaib Also Proves Tapper and Bash Are Very Bad at Their Jobs
Quite justified moral outrage shouldn’t obscure what this episode taught us about the professional quality exhibited by two of CNN's most prominent anchors.
Sep 27, 2024
CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are taking well-deserved heat for making and repeating a demonstrably false accusation of antisemitism against Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). The story has been widely reported (see here and here, for example) and is also summarized below for anyone who might have missed it. The bottom line is that, in an interview, Tlaib objected to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s decision to prosecute pro-Palestinian student protestors. In response, Nessel falsely claimed that Tlaib “used her (Nessel’s) religion” to imply she was biased.
Tapper and Bash repeated the Attorney General’s false accusation and accused Tlaib of antisemitism, even after the reporter who spoke with Tlaib tried repeatedly to correct them. The CNN journalists finally walked their comments back, kinda-sorta, but not in a way that absolves them.
It’s ironic. Despite the mainstream media’s much-repeated concerns about “disinformation”—a concern CNN has often echoed—these two media stars participated in a disinformation campaign against the American people. But moral outrage, however justified, shouldn’t obscure something else this episode taught us about Tapper and Bash: they’re also very bad at their jobs.
Ethics and Standards
Don’t take my word for it. Their chosen profession has ethics and standards, by which they must be judged harshly. The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) states clearly that journalists must “verify information before releasing it,” which Tapper and Bash clearly did not do.
Despite the mainstream media’s much-repeated concerns about “disinformation”—a concern CNN has often echoed—these two media stars participated in a disinformation campaign against the American people.
The SPJ also advises that journalists “use original sources whenever possible.” But Tapper and Bash don’t even seem to have read the original interview with Tlaib, even though it was freely available online. By all appearances, they relied solely on the Attorney General’s angry tweet. That’s shockingly unprofessional.
Journalists are expected to “acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently,” and must “explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.”
“Promptly”? It took days to respond. “Carefully and clearly”? Tapper said that he “misspoke,” and Bash’s walk-back was even weaker. “Tlaib did not reference (the Attorney General’s) Jewish identity,” said Bash, and “her office says that is not what she meant.” But Bash repeated the false accusation when she added that Nessel (who is hardly an objective source) “says she still believes (Tlaib’s statement) is antisemitic.”
The Code of Ethics also states that journalists must “support the open and civil exchange of views,” adding, “even views they find repugnant.”
It would appear that Tapper and Bash have strong views on Israel-Palestine which differ from Rep. Tlaib’s. Nevertheless, they’re obliged to air differing views without slurs or accusations. They failed to do that.
“Journalists should examine the ways their values and experiences may shape their reporting,” says the SPJ’s code. “Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one’s work and explaining one’s decisions to the public.”
The last sentence speaks for itself.
“Stop Being Fooled by Misinformation”
“Stop being fooled by misinformation,” one CNN headline reads. “Do this instead.”
I have grave misgivings about the way mainstream media, politicians, and national security institutions want to treat misinformation (getting the facts wrong) and disinformation (deliberate deception). But it’s always helpful to teach critical reading skills. Experts in that field have insights that might prove useful to Tapper and Bash.
The CNN article covered misinformation research by the American Psychological Association (APA), which writes that “psychological factors make people susceptible” to deception. The APA warns readers about “the emotional content of misinformation,” adding: “People are more likely to believe false statements that appeal to emotions such as fear and outrage.”
That appears to be the case with Tapper and Bash, who seem to have let their emotions and prejudices overwhelm their professional judgment.
The media and political elites in this country are interconnected. They collaborate, socialize, and reinforce each other’s biases. They form, not a “conspiracy” as such, but what Gore Vidal called “a conspiracy of shared values.”
The APA also says, “People are more likely to believe misinformation if it comes from in-group sources rather than out-group ones, or if they judge the source as credible.”
The media and political elites in this country are interconnected. They collaborate, socialize, and reinforce each other’s biases. They form, not a “conspiracy” as such, but what Gore Vidal called “a conspiracy of shared values.” They form a community, comprised of people who know one another and see the world in similar ways.
The Michigan Attorney General is a mainstream Democrat and therefore part of that community. Rashida Tlaib is an outsider: left-leaning, brash, and Palestinian—something Tapper couldn’t resist bringing up when he first made his accusation.
Conclusion
Michigan’s Attorney General was guilty of demagoguery. She overrode the judgment of the county prosecutor and chose to file charges against the students, repeating a pattern of selective prosecution seen all across the country. When challenged, she brought religion into the debate—fully aware that Muslim Americans face great bias in this country.
Two prominent media figures then embraced her lie, amplified it, and repeated it even after being challenged. When confronted, they “corrected” themselves without accepting responsibility or explaining their actions. In the meantime, their lie took on a life of its own, as every “Big Lie” does. It’s still being repeated as of this writing.
That’s disinformation, and it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The disinformation campaign around Gaza, Palestine, Israel, and the protest movement has flooded this country with fake stories that range from beheaded babies to “billionaires” and “outside agitators” supplying campus demonstrators with tents and chains. You won’t hear politicians or media corporations weigh in on this disinformation campaign campaign, however, because it doesn’t come from political outsiders or overseas click farms.
It comes from them.
Addendum: What Happened
You can read more about it here and here, but here’s the gist (if you know the story you can skip to the next section): Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) criticized Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for overruling county authorities and pressing charges against pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the University of Michigan, a decision Tlaib called “biased.”
The write-up of the interview in the Detroit Metro Times originally included this sentence:
Tlaib also criticized Nessel, who is the first Jewish person elected Attorney General of Michigan, for what she believes is a biased approach to the protest.
“Rashida should not use my religion to imply I cannot perform my job fairly as Attorney General,” Nessel tweeted in response. “It’s anti-Semitic and wrong.”
Even a cursory glance at the article reveals nothing to suggest that Tlaib mentioned Nessel’s religion. And yet, after gratuitously mentioning Tlaib’s Palestinian background, Tapper asked Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer if Tlaib’s comment was antisemitic. He doubled down when Whitmer demurred:
“Congresswoman Tlaib is suggesting that she shouldn’t be prosecuting these individuals that Nessel says broke the law, and that she’s only doing it because she’s Jewish and the protesters are not. That’s quite an accusation. Do you think it’s true?”
Steve Neavling, the reporter who interviewed Tlaib, pushed back. “Fact-check,” he tweeted. “Tlaib did not say Nessel charged pro-Palestinian protesters because she’s Jewish.” He wrote a detailed fact-check. He also addressed Tapper directly on X. “You’re spreading lies,” said Neavling.
CNN’s Dana Bash repeated the lie after Neavling’s pushback, claiming on-air that Tlaib had said “the state’s Jewish attorney general was letting her religion influence her job.” That was false.
Keep ReadingShow Less
CNN's Tapper, Bash Urged to Apologize for 'Reprehensible' Lies About Rashida Tlaib
"At this point, there is virtually zero chance that CNN, Jake Tapper, and Dana Bash don't know that Rashida Tlaib never said what they are claiming," said one observer.
Sep 24, 2024
Calls grew on Monday for CNN and two of its top on-air personalities to apologize for claiming that U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib made an antisemitic remark during a recent interview after the journalist who interviewed the Michigan Democrat confirmed that the reporters were lying.
During the September 13 interview with Detroit Metro Times reporter Steve Neavling, Tlaib—the only Palestinian American member of Congress—condemned Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for setting a "dangerous precedent" by prosecuting University of Michigan students who peacefully protested against Israel's war on Gaza, for which the key U.S. ally is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice. Charges against the Michigan protesters include trespassing on their own campus and obstructing police.
"I'm the reporter who interviewed Rashida Tlaib. She never said Nessel did this because she's Jewish. Never. You're spreading lies."
"We've had the right to dissent, the right to protest," Tlaib said during the interview. "We've done it for climate, the immigrant rights movement, for Black lives, and even around issues of injustice among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs."
Nessel, who is Jewish, accused Tlaib of antisemitism in a Friday social media post comparing the congresswoman's comments to a cartoon drawn by Detroit News automotive reporter Henry Payne and published in the right-wing National Review implying Tlaib is a member of Hezbollah, the Lebanese political and paramilitary group.
Enter Jake Tapper, CNN's lead Washington anchor, who critics have long accused of pro-Israel bias. On Monday, Tapper interviewed Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, asking the Democrat to respond to Tlaib's purported assertion that Nessel is only prosecuting Palestine protesters "because she's Jewish."
"I'm not going to get in the middle of this argument that they're having," Whitmer said. "I can just say this. We do want to make sure that students are safe on our campuses, and we recognize that every person has the right to make their statement about how they feel about an issue, a right to speak out, and I'm going to use every lever of mine to ensure that both are true."
During a live broadcast on Monday, CNN anchor Dana Bash lamented what she called the "sad reality" that "antisemitism is everywhere and it comes from both ends of the political spectrum."
"But politicians sometimes sidestep calling it out when it comes from a member of their own party," she added, referring to "a Democratic congresswoman's accusation that the state's Jewish attorney general was letting her religion influence her job."
There was no such "accusation."
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League—which has come under fire for conflating legitimate criticism of Israel with hatred of Jews—slammed Whitmer,
posting Monday that "saying you want to 'make sure that students are safe on our campuses' is just words if you are not willing to use your bully pulpit to speak out unequivocally on antisemitism and support holding people accountable for violating the law when it affects Jews."
Whitmer then issued a new statement
saying: "The suggestion that Attorney General Nessel would make charging decisions based on her religion as opposed to the rule of law is antisemitic. We must all use our platforms and voices to call out hateful rhetoric and racist tropes."
Neavling accused Whitmer of "adding to the lie."
"I'm the reporter who interviewed Rashida Tlaib," he
said in response to a social media post by Tapper. "She never said Nessel did this because she's Jewish. Never. You're spreading lies."
On Monday,
Detroit Metro Times also published a fact-check by Neavling underscoring that Tlaib never said what Nessel, Tapper, and Bash claim.
"Tlaib never once mentioned Nessel's religion or Judaism. But Metro Times pointed out in the story that Nessel is Jewish, and that appears to be the spark that led to the false claims," Neavling wrote. "It should also be noted that the ACLU of Michigan criticized Nessel for charging peaceful protesters at the University of Michigan."
Margaret Zaknoen DeReus, executive director at the California-based Institute for Middle East Understanding, said Monday that "at this point, there is virtually zero chance that CNN, Jake Tapper, and Dana Bash don't know that Rashida Tlaib never said what they are claiming."
"Why are they doubling down instead of correcting themselves and apologizing?" she asked.
Isaac Bailey, a McClatchy columnist and professor of communications practices at Davidson College in North Carolina, asserted Tuesday that Bash and Tapper "owe Tlaib an apology."
Later on Monday, Tapper said during an interview with Nessel that he "misspoke yesterday" about Tlaib's comments.
Bash followed Tuesday by acknowledging that Tlaib "did not reference Nessel's Jewish identity," but added that Nessel believes the congresswoman's remarks were antisemitic.
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement Tuesday that "CNN made a misstatement of fact that needs to be retracted if the network is to maintain its journalistic credibility."
"Congresswoman Tlaib should also be offered a public apology for falsely claiming she is antisemitic," Walid added.
As the Jewish Telegraphic Agency noted earlier this year, Bash and Tapper have "both infused their Jewish identity into their reporting."
Tlaib has faced repeated unfounded allegations of antisemitism from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, especially for calling Israel's war on Gaza a "genocide"—an assessment with which many experts concur—and for using the phrase, "From the river to the sea."
The congresswoman has explained that, to her and to many Palestinians, the phrase—which is also a core component of the original platform of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party—"is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate."
Last November, Tlaib's House colleagues voted 234-188, with 22 Democrats joining almost all Republicans present, in approving a resolution to censure the congresswoman over her defense of Palestine and criticism of Israel's annihilation of Gaza, which has now left more than 147,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing.
On Tuesday, 21 House Democrats led by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) published a statement contending that "casting doubt on Attorney General Nessel's impartiality or implying these cases are being handled unfairly due to her religious background is antisemitic, deeply disturbing, and unacceptable."
The dead in Gaza include at least 100 journalists, the vast majority of whom are Palestinian.
In May, the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) filed a third complaint at the International Criminal Court alleging "war crimes against journalists in Gaza."
RSF said it had "reasonable grounds for thinking that some of these journalists were deliberately killed and that the others were the victims of deliberate IDF attacks against civilians" and accused Israel of "an eradication of the Palestinian media."
There has been little reporting on the subject by the U.S. corporate media, even as American journalists are killed or wounded in what journalistic investigations have concluded are deliberate targetings by Israeli forces.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular