“The incentive structures in the worlds of politics and news media… are geared towards division and not just division, but demonizing people. And it's very dangerous. It has already resulted in loss of life.”
-CNN’s Jake Tapper
Jake Tapper is the CNN Chief Washington Correspondent, anchor of The Lead with Jake Tapper, and co-host of the Sunday morning public affairs program State of the Union. In 2023, he was part of the team that won a duPont-Columbia award for their coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. He also hosted the awards at Columbia University in 2018.
In this episode, Tapper sits down with Columbia Journalism School’s Dean Jelani Cobb to reminisce about their longstanding friendship and talk about the extraordinary state of American politics. including how journalists should report on figures like Trump.
“People are often surprised when they watch the film and they realize that it's sort of a dark comedy. It's a funny movie. He's a funny guy.”
“Navalny” follows Alexei Navalny, his team and his family as he investigates his own poisoning, and heads back to Russia to meet his fate. Director Daniel Roher explains how he built a relationship with Russia’s most prominent opposition leader.
“When we were in the back of a van crossing Hungary to Vienna, the driver was drunk and all the smugglers had AK-47s... and I remember my cousin looking at me like, I hope you're not filming. But I was secretly holding the camera.”
Exodus’ subject Hassan Akkad on filming himself, and Director James Bluemel on collecting these important stories.
“I'm sorry to say I knew from the beginning that we weren't going to be able to control this disease, because Americans won't cooperate.” -- Donald G. McNeil Jr.
On our latest episode of On Assignment, The New York Times Science and Health Reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr., 2020 winner of the John Chancellor Award, discusses the rise of his career covering infectious diseases to The Daily host Michael Barbaro.
“The greatest enemy of democracy is interference with the right to vote.” -- Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
On our latest episode of On Assignment, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. relates his 2020 duPont-winning documentary series Reconstruction: America After the Civil War to events of today with duPont juror Mark Whitaker.
“John really insisted on using the word “uprising.” Because as I'm keenly aware, based on my background, one person's riot is another person's uprising, depending on which side of the equation you're sitting.” - ABC News Producer Jeanmarie Condon on the language used in “Let it Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992.”
This month’s On Assignment podcast revisits the deep reporting behind the 2018 duPont-Award winning documentary, linking the decade up to the Rodney King beating with the 1992 uprising that followed. Director John Ridley and ABC News Producers Jeanmarie Condon, Melia Patria and Fatima Curry discuss the film’s ongoing relevance as America faces a racial reckoning after the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others.
“We were called to a meeting… in the basement of one of the government buildings in D.C.. We went in the backdoor so our visit wouldn't have shown up on any logs….” —- CBS News Producer Michael Rey on behind-the-scenes, under the radar reporting for the duPont Award winning 60 Minutes “On the Border” series.
This month On Assignment goes an inside look at the groundbreaking reporting in 60 Minutes’ two-part series “On the Border,” which explored family separation at the US/Mexico border. Producers Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados discuss secret meetings with government sources, and what it was like to have a U.S. president criticize their work. They also talk about the challenges of remotely producing the news for television in the age of COVID-19.
This month On Assignment is revisiting a popular past episode with Kai Wright and Kaari Pitkin of WNYC, creators of the podcast series “Caught: the Lives of Juvenile Justice.” The series gives young people in the juvenile justice system a chance to tell their stories, showing the human side of an often underreported part of the criminal justice system.
This month On Assignment is revisiting a popular past episode with New Yorker Staff Writer Jelani Cobb, who teamed up with FRONTLINE to ask a simple question: Can a troubled police department be reformed? To get answers Cobb embedded with the gang unit of the Newark, New Jersey police department and spoke to officers, citizens, and city officials. Hear him and FRONTLINE producer James Jacoby in conversation with Professor Betsy West on the latest On Assignment podcast.