CNN anchor Jake Tapper sparked outrage on Twitter Tuesday by sharing an article written by Salena Zito, a columnist for the New York Post and Washington Examiner, about the race for Pennsylvania’s US Senate seat.
Tapper, host of CNN’s daytime talk show “The Lead” and co-host of its Sunday political broadcast “State of the Union,” shared the link to a Zito story that appeared in the Washington Examiner.
Zito has written extensively for both publications — criticizing the contest between Pennsylvania Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat, and TV personality Mehmet Oz, the GOP candidate.
“Zito: Oz can’t beat Fetterman, but he can outwork and beat him.” Tapper tweetedquoting the story’s title verbatim.
Tapper’s tweet was a bridge too far for some of his more than 3.3 million Twitter followers.
“Jake drank the kool-aid,” one user tweeted.
“Why are you retweeting a Washington Examiner opinion piece?” another Twitter user demanded to know.
“This is not journalism; this is contempt for the new boss. I thought you were one of the good ones.”
The complainant added: “An honest journalist. What a joke. Chris Cuomo seems like he has more integrity than you at this point.”
Tapper’s tweet fueled suspicions among his followers that it was part of an attempt by the cable news channel to return to the political center after it was acquired by a new corporate parent, Warner Bros. Discovery.
This past weekend marked the final broadcast of the weekly Reliable Sources show hosted by former CNN media reporter Brian Stelter.
Stelter, who was among the network’s personalities widely perceived to have displayed a clear liberal bias, especially during Donald Trump’s presidency, was given the pink slip by new CNN chief Chris Licht last week.
Licht has been given a mandate by his corporate bosses at the newly merged entity Warner Bros. Discovery to reduce opinionated comments and deliver more straight news.
The former executive producer of Stephen Colbert’s CBS late-night show is reportedly set to make more big changes at the network.
Licht reportedly intends to “blow up” the daily morning show New Day, according to the Daily Beast.
