CNN Anchors Who Are Seriously Shady

It’s no secret that traditional news platforms and “mainstream media” outlets like CNN are dying, either as a result of aging demographics, the prominence of social media and streaming platforms, increasingly conservative audiences, or even shady anchors you’d never want to meet in real life. In 2020, CNN averaged 1.8 million viewers in primetime; by the end of 2024, CNN’s primetime lineup was averaging less than 400,000 viewers, as The Washington Post notes. Things are looking grim over at CNN.

Granted, viewership has declined across practically all cable networks, but it’s truly remarkable how much CNN’s audience has plummeted, especially since the November 2024 election of President Donald Trump. Perhaps this is why CNN CEO Mark Thompson, in a January 2025 editorial meeting, directed the network’s top anchors to tone down their anti-Trump rhetoric and “avoid pre-judging” the new president, per Status.

As if this apparent self-censorship isn’t shady enough, CNN’s corporate nature and its allegedly biased coverage of Israel and Palestine indicate a rightward shift in 2025. Additionally, many CNN anchors have their own individual histories of contentious, controversial, or just downright dubious behavior. Of course, these are merely a few reasons why public trust in the media is at a five-decade low, with 33% of people polled by Gallup in February 2025 not trusting the media “very much” and an additional 36% not trusting the media “at all.” Suffice it to say, Jake Tapper is no Walter Cronkite, and neither are his fellow anchors on CNN.

Before being a senior political commentator on CNN and hosting “The Axe Files,” David Axelrod was a fixture of Chicago politics and known for fighting dirty. For instance, he dug up sealed divorce records to launch salacious smear campaigns against Barack Obama’s opponents, Blair Hull and Jack Ryan, in the 2004 Senate race. As Obama biographer David Mendell told The Guardian, “[Axelrod] can be cut-throat. He believes when you get in a race, you beat the other side by almost any means necessary.” He’s become so cut-throat that even Joe Biden’s administration has attacked him following Axelrod’s (ultimately prophetic) suggestion in 2023 that Biden shouldn’t run for a second term.

Axelrod’s consulting firm, AKPD Message and Media, has reflected the CNN anchor through its own shady dealings. This includes one of Bill de Blasio’s scandals as the mayor of New York City, which involved converting his election campaign into a fundraising organization, where money was allegedly funneled to AKPD and other groups. New York’s Department of Investigation ruled that he had violated city ethics, though there were no charges.

AKPD Message and Media also got in hot water for intervening in Nigeria’s 2015 election as a paid consultant for the challenger, former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari. AKPD was caught in an apparent lie after Buzzfeed leaked emails in February 2015, which detailed the firm’s active role during months they had previously denied working with Buhari’s campaign.

One of the shadier aspects of CNN concerns its coverage of Israel and the situation in Gaza, which some United Nations experts have called genocide. A February 2024 report from The Guardian cites disgruntled CNN staffers who claimed, “Ultimately, CNN’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war amounts to journalistic malpractice.” Anchor Dana Bash has practically become the de facto face of CNN’s shady reporting on Israel and Palestine and has been criticized as a result.

Bash has been unapologetic about reporting, which demonized pro-Palestinian student protesters (even comparing them to the rise of Hitler’s Germany) while welcoming voices of the Israeli government. As such, events she’s attended have been disrupted by protesters calling her “Bloody Bash.” One protester stated (via The Wrap), “I came here to ask her why she’s telling lies on public air every single day.” A member of the activist group Code Pink also went viral after confronting Bash at another event, accusing her of “being a mouthpiece for the genocide in Gaza.”

Bash (along with fellow anchor Jake Tapper, a pair whom Mondoweiss calls “CNN’s Dishonest Duo”) did have to apologize for one thing — sort of. Bash replayed a segment from Tapper in which he misrepresented comments from Representative Rashida Tlaib, claiming Tlaib had made an alleged antisemitic remark that she never made. Bash used this to inform a segment on antisemitism, later admitting that Tlaib did not say what Tapper had claimed, but offered no apology.

Speaking of Jake Tapper — he, like Dana Bash, was criticized for his coverage of student protests and his false accusations against Representative Rashida Tlaib (subsequently announcing that he had “misspoke”). That’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to accusations of Tapper’s shadiness. The CNN anchor has been accused of hypocrisy for previously dismissing alarms over Joe Biden’s age before publishing a book (with co-writer Alex Thompson) which detailed Biden’s mental decline. Tapper’s book, “Original Sin,” meticulously chronicles what he calls “President Biden’s decline, its cover-up, and his disastrous choice to run again.” However, many have pointed to Tapper’s “rewriting of history,” considering he has previously defended Biden’s age. “I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody’s cognitive decline,” said Tapper to Lara Trump in a segment on his series, “The Lead with Jake Tapper” (via the New York Post). The CNN anchor was also chastised for using his news platform to endlessly promote his book, something “The Daily Show” mocked with a compilation of clips.

Tapper has also been accused of racism in a variety of ways over the years, especially for his embarrassing 2003 article for Salon, “Gangbanging in Media Land.” In a cringeworthy faux-hip-hop style meant to mock Black colloquialisms, Tapper wrote a piece filled with lines like, “They’re playa-hatas. It’s infra dig, beneath us, yo,” and “Bust an Op-Ed in its ass, yo.” In another article for Salon, Tapper also called the reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson “race-baiting hucksters.”

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins became a popular fixture at the network with surprising rapidity after joining at the age of 25. Memorable for her frequent spats with President Donald Trump and press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Collins drew the ire of many Republicans, with the White House even barring her from an event at one point. This has led some to criticize a perceived left-wing bias. In actuality, though, Collins’ career in journalism began with the right-wing outlet The Daily Caller, co-founded by Tucker Carlson.

While at The Daily Caller, Collins wrote some shady clickbait articles, such as “The Internet Wonders: Are the Obama Girls Skirts Too Short” and “This Photo Of Charlize Theron Without Pants On Is The Greatest Thing On The Internet Right Now.” She also wrote articles that sarcastically mocked women’s appearances (like “Barbara Mikulski’s Hottest Moments”) or objectified them in disturbing ways (as in “13 Syrian Refugees We’d Take Immediately”). One of her most reviled articles is “Ice Bucket Challenge Hipsters: These Guantanamo Detainees Did It First,” in which Collins compared the viral challenge to the waterboarding and torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Perhaps Collins was ashamed of this, as her byline was temporarily removed from multiple archived articles in 2021.

Of course, we can’t ignore Collins’ shady use of X (formerly Twitter). She was criticized for old tweets in which she used a homophobic slur and also wrote, “idk [sic] if I want to room with a lesbian.”

Erin Burnett has been criticized since the very first episode of her CNN show, “OutFront,” in which she chastised the Occupy Wall Street movement. Following the October 3, 2011, segment (and its rebroadcast the next day), Burnett was lampooned for conflicts of interest and misleading reporting, most notably by FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), which disputed Burnett’s characterization of Occupy Wall Street and 2008’s big bank bailouts. FAIR noted that Burnett had worked on Wall Street with the investment bank Goldman Sachs, while her soon-to-be husband had worked with Lehman Brothers before joining Citigroup.

Burnett’s inauspicious CNN debut drew more personal attacks, with The Baltimore Sun writing, “She comes across as self-satisfied, smug, privileged … It seems as if she doesn’t get journalism, and she sure doesn’t get America.” She has a long history of defending big banks and corporations, from her time earning Rush Limbaugh’s praise for supporting giant CEO bonuses and pushing corporate agendas at CNBC, to her attacks on Senator Bernie Sanders and Medicare for All.

In addition to allegedly misleading reporting, Burnett has also drawn criticism for on-air gaffes. She once had to apologize for saying the F-word while reading a purported Trump quote and wept on-air another time. She was also attacked for her reporting on the July 28, 2025, mass shooting in New York City, in which she erroneously stated the shooter was “possibly white” (per The Daily Mail).

CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield became embroiled in controversy when covering the 2015 story of a gunman who opened fire from an armored van into Dallas’ Police Headquarters. Whitfield tactlessly called the shooter, who was killed by a police sniper, “very courageous and brave.” In her initial 13-second apology, Whitfield simply said, “I misspoke and in no way believe the gunman was courageous nor brave.”

Whitfield’s apology was promptly criticized, with the Dallas Police Association’s Vice President Frederick Frazier stating, “While her comments were appalling and offensive to the men and women in police departments across our country, her flippant non-apology served as further insult.” Whitfield apologized for a second time, making sure to do so emphatically, saying, “I sincerely apologize for making this statement, and I understand now how offensive it was, and I want to reiterate that in no way do I believe the gunman was courageous or brave. I sincerely apologize.”

On a less drastic note, Whitfield has been criticized for her shady interview tactics and allegations of “gotcha journalism,” which has occasionally blown up in her face. That was the case in 2014 when the late comedian Joan Rivers infamously walked out of an interview with Whitfield. Rivers told Access Hollywood that it felt like “an interrogation,” saying of Whitfield, “I’m sorry for her, because I think she should not have been doing a comedy interview.” Whitfield’s interviews with Ohio Representative Brad Wenstrup and others have been similarly contentious.

While CNN has fired many anchors with sketchy pasts (Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, Eliot Spitzer), Richard Quest managed to survive his. Quest has flourished at CNN since joining in 2001, despite making headlines on April 18, 2008. Quest was with another man in Central Park, and when approached by the police for violating the curfew and loitering, he admitted that he was in possession of crystal meth. He also had a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals, and a sex toy in his boot.

A judge ordered Quest to complete six months of rehab with drug counseling and therapy, but it was seemingly outpatient — Quest returned to CNN less than two months later. If anything, his career actually blossomed. “My role today is far greater than it’s ever been,” Quest told The Guardian in June 2009. “That’s the paradox of the whole situation … Within six months of the whole thing, I was back on air with a new show.”

While he may not be on methamphetamine, his on-air behavior has sometimes been described as erratic or overly animated. In both April and July 2025, Quest removed one of his shoes and waved it at someone on-air as a misjudged way to communicate the kinds of products that will be affected by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. That’s when he isn’t loudly pounding tables with his hands and shouting, much to the awkwardness of other panelists.

CNN’s wealthy Chief Medical Correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, has garnered controversy from both sides of the ideological aisle, especially during the coronavirus and its aftermath. In October 2021, Dr. Gupta appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has a history of spreading misinformation about the coronavirus, and they had a contentious conversation about CNN’s coverage of the pandemic. Rogan repeated conservative critiques of CNN and Gupta (that they had misled the public about the risks and benefits of vaccines), while liberals criticized Gupta for seemingly pandering to Rogan’s audience.

Dr. Gupta’s perceived conflict of interest as both a CNN reporter and a doctor has also required some explanation. As Washington Post cultural critic Philip Kennicott told NPR, “If you’re there as a medical professional and you feel, for reasons of humanity, that you have to serve as a medical professional, turn the camera off.” Performing emergency surgeries while reporting in places like Haiti and Iraq makes for great television, but can be ethically shady.

That conflict of interest came to a head when Dr. Gupta and CNN were accused of misleading viewers with a factually incorrect video that claimed he performed life-saving surgery on an eight-year-old in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake. In actuality, he was filmed operating on a 14-year-old without the knowledge of the hospital’s management and its chief neurosurgeon. The Global Press Journal called out the error and revealed that neither the patient nor her family even knew she was on CNN.

Before his work on CNN, Van Jones’ time in politics frequently drove Republicans apoplectic. While working as a Special Advisor for Green Jobs in the Barack Obama administration, conservatives launched what Jones called “a vicious smear campaign” against him. This included digging up video of Jones calling Republicans “a**holes,” and allegations that he’d signed a petition suggesting George W. Bush and his administration were involved in 9/11. After a barrage of attacks, Jones resigned from the Obama administration, but he carried the contempt of his critics with him to CNN.

Despite that, Jones has complimented President Donald Trump from time to time, much to the chagrin of other liberals like Joy Reid. He would go on to work with the Trump administration on an executive order about police reform (work which even Jones’ old non-profit Color of Change called “delusional”). The problem is, as The Daily Beast revealed, Jones did not publicly disclose this at a time when he was praising the policy on CNN. “The executive order is a good thing, mainly because you saw the support of law enforcement there,” Jones said, among other positive statements, before his involvement was revealed.

Jones has been involved in numerous organizations over the years and has not always had something to show for it. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos even gave Jones a check for $100 million for his non-profit work, with Jones using it to found Dream.org, another unfocused group that he was forced out of.

If any single anchor represents the face of CNN, it’s long-time TV newsman Anderson Cooper. Despite his popularity, Cooper certainly has his haters and critics who contest his credibility. After all, he literally forged his first media credentials after he “couldn’t get an entry-level job on any of the networks,” as Cooper told Conan O’Brien. “I asked the director of the show to make a fake press pass for me. I borrowed a camera they weren’t using,” added Cooper, who descends from the scandal-riddled Vanderbilt dynasty.

Cooper has been mocked for his many on-air breakdowns, an emotionality which some people find inappropriate for the news. The New York Observer has even called Cooper CNN’s “emo-anchor” (via New York Magazine). Aside from weeping, Cooper has had multiple profane outbursts on live television, like when he said to former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, “Don’t be a d***” (via the New York Post), which even ex-colleague Chris Cuomo gave him flak for, or during an interview with Rob Blagojevich in which he shouted, “Bulls***!” (via Deadline). That behavior is seemingly exacerbated with the assistance of alcohol, with Cooper and his friend Andy Cohen getting scolded by CNN for their ribald New Year’s Eve coverage, leading to CNN temporarily banning on-air drinking.

While generally critiqued by Republicans, Cooper’s occasional capitulation to Donald Trump has been admonished by Democrats. This came to a head with Cooper’s decision to host a town hall with Trump in 2023, leading to a widely ridiculed apology.