Should news outlets call out candidates they think are racist and xenophobic? Or just report the news? CNN’s Jake Tapper stirred up debate on the subject when he told TheWrap that recent headlines mocking Trump and his supporters were “the very height of elitism.”
The New York Daily News heralded Trump’s New Hampshire victory as “Dawn of the Brain Dead,” with the subheadline: “Clown comes back to live with N.H. win as mindless zombies turn out in droves.” The Huffington Post wrote: “WTF GOP? Racist, Sexist, Xenophobic Demogogue Wins NH.”
Tapper told TheWrap those “are business decisions that they are making, not journalistic decisions” adding, “journalistically to attack people who support a candidate is the very height of elitism.”
Media Matters’ Oliver Willis disagreed:
https://twitter.com/owillis/status/697822689881427968
Tapper added:
to be precise, what i thought was the height of elitism was the headline mocking the people who voted for Trump
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 11, 2016
The ensuing responses were polarized. Some agreed with Tapper, while others said there was nothing wrong with news headlines that criticize Trump.
https://twitter.com/zbjordan23/status/697825123093450754
https://twitter.com/DanTheManPayne/status/697826155873898496
https://twitter.com/TheBulmer/status/697827949790232578
https://twitter.com/Bleipold1/status/697826052488486912
https://twitter.com/prairiegirlsk/status/697824995771219969
https://twitter.com/GhostofBernie/status/697828032573079552
https://twitter.com/MattSwaffer/status/697829180281491456
https://twitter.com/MichaelMarchlik/status/697824819102879745
https://twitter.com/HopeH_67/status/697823351616606208
https://twitter.com/OmIngram/status/697822915593707520
@jaketapper @TheWrap More importantly, @realDonaldTrump is the height of short-fingered vulgarianism.
— LeftWingZealot (@leftwingzealot) February 11, 2016