Jake Tapper: “A Lot Of People On TV…Would Benefit From Reading More”

Since we haven’t gotten our weekly fix of “White House vs. Fox News” tag usage, we figured we’d ask Jake Tapper about it on yesterday’s Office Hours.

Tapper was one of the first reporters to ask a question on the topic a couple weeks ago, so we got an update on where things stand in his mind.

“It’s not a focus of my life, the rivalry between the White House and Fox News,” said Tapper. But:

The one thing I’ll say is I wish I had been here for the last year of the Bush administration, because I would have asked the same thing about them going after MSNBC and NBC or attacking the New York Times as unpatriotic or whatever. And I didn’t have that opportunity to do it, but this really had a lot more to do with questions about whether any White House should declare any media organization is or is not legitimate, and has nothing to do with if I even agree with the White House’s assessment.

Tapper also weighed in, diplomatically, about some strong reaction to Tuesday’s elections on cable news: “When it comes to cable I think, in general, they have 24 hours to fill and there are a lot of people on TV who would, how do I say this, would benefit from reading more.”

Here’s the full show, with Tapper’s interview starting around the nine minute mark:

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