Jake Tapper of CNN has admitted to not fact-checking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on his show after she’d said the administration called the coronavirus a “hoax,” but claimed it was okay because Trump “lies so often.”
Tapper remained silent on Sunday when Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) criticized the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ show, claiming that the White House had at one point labeled the disease a “hoax.”
In reality, the administration never labeled the coronavirus a hoax, though Donald Trump last month did call media coverage part of a hoax when he criticized outlets for stirring up hysteria.
“This is their new hoax,” he told a rally in South Carolina, saying the media were trying to politicize the disease and create panic.
AOC just repeated the lie that President Trump called coronavirus a "hoax."
This is not true, and has been debunked by numerous fact checking sources.
— Abigail Marone (Text EMPOWER to 88022) (@abigailmarone) March 22, 2020
In response to criticism from Washington Examiner and Campus Reform writer Abigail Marone, that the New York congresswoman was pushing a false narrative on his show and that he was allowing it, Tapper admitted to not doing his job as a journalist and purposefully not fact-checking her.
I thought about it, because the president did not call the virus a hoax.
But i didn’t because he *did* call a hoax the concerns of those saying that the response from the president was insufficient and that he was downplaying the gravity of the crisis. And that too was a lie. https://t.co/MdPeulQpZ1
“I thought about [fact-checking], because the president did not call the virus a hoax,” Tapper tweeted. “But I didn’t because he *did* call a hoax the concerns of those saying that the response from the president was insufficient and that he was downplaying the gravity of the crisis.”
The CNN host went further in excusing himself for not doing his job by saying it is difficult to fact-check false statements about the president because he’s a politician who “lies so often.”
I guess that’s the problem with a politician who lies so often; while I agree that Democrats are mischaracterizing what he said, what he did say was also false so it’s tough to justify taking the time for a fact check when it’s not taking a stand defining the truth.
Trump has continued criticizing the media over coronavirus coverage, telling reporters during a Friday press briefing – after a testy exchange with NBC News journalist Peter Alexander – that they are pushing “sensationalism” when citizens are looking to them for answers.