The 2020-21 Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture

Jake Tapper, CNN's Chief Washington Correspondent and host of "The Lead with Jake Tapper"

Tuesday, February 2, 2021
3:30 PM (Pacific Time)
Webinar

 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER 

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper joined CNN in January 2013. Tapper currently anchors a one-hour weekday program, The Lead with Jake Tapper, which debuted in March 2013, and has hosted CNN's Sunday morning show, State of the Union, since June 2015.

Tapper imparts his political expertise on State of the Union by conducting interviews with top newsmakers on politics and policy, covering Washington, the country, and the world. The Lead covers headlines from around the country and the globe with topics ranging from breaking news in politics and world events, to politics, money, sports, and popular culture.

Most recently, Tapper lent his political expertise to CNN's 2020 election coverage. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he moderated two Presidential Primary debates.

Tapper has been a widely-respected reporter in the nation's capital for more than 15 years. His reporting during the 2020 election season has brought him acclaim and respect from colleagues and the audience alike. His work during the 2016 election has been recognized with a number of awards, including a 2017 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism, the Los Angeles Press Club's Presidents Award for Impact on Media, and The Canadian Journalism Foundation's Tribute to Exemplary Journalism. Tapper has also earned the coveted Merriman Smith Award for presidential coverage from the White House Correspondents' Association four times.

In addition to his reporting, Tapper has also authored four books, including his debut novel The Hellfire Club, published in 2018, The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, published in 2012, Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency, published in 2001, and Body Slam: The Jesse Ventura Story, published in 1999. The Outpost debuted in the top 10 on The New York Times best seller list. Tapper's book and his reporting on the veterans and troops were cited when the Congressional Medal of Honor Society awarded him the "Tex" McCrary Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Tapper joined CNN from ABC News, where he most recently served as senior White House correspondent, a position he was named to immediately following the 2008 presidential election. He also played a key role in ABC News' Emmy award winning coverage of the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, and its Murrow-Award winning coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden.

In his more than nine years at ABC News, Tapper covered a wide range of stories, visiting remote corners of Afghanistan, covering the war in Iraq from Baghdad, and spending time in New Orleans to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the levee system. In 2008, he served as a lead political reporter for the coverage of the presidential election.

Prior to joining ABC News, Tapper served as Washington correspondent, then national correspondent, for Salon.com. He began his journalism career at the Washington City Paper and his reporting has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The Weekly Standard, among others. He has drawn caricatures and illustrations for the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, and his comic strip, "Capitol Hell," appeared in Roll Call from 1994 to 2003. In 2001, he hosted the CNN show Take 5, a weekend program that featured young journalists talking about politics and pop culture.

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude from Dartmouth College in 1991 and lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, daughter and son.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Kal Raustiala is a professor at UCLA School of Law and the UCLA International Institute, where he teaches in the Program on Global Studies. He has served as the Director of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations since 2007.

ABOUT THE DANIEL PEARL MEMORIAL LECTURE SERIES

In sponsoring the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture Series, the Burkle Center for International Relations celebrates the memory of Daniel Pearl as a prominent journalist who dedicated his life to bringing joy and understanding to the world. Past presenters have included David Remnick of The New Yorker, Leon Wieseltier of The New Republic, Christopher Hitchens, CNN's Anderson Cooper, David Brooks and Thomas Friedman of The New York Times, ABC’s Ted Koppel, CBS’s Jeff Greenfield, Daniel Schorr of NPR, CNN's Larry King, former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Ambassador Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bret Stephens, CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria, and Bob Woodward, award-winning author and associate editor of the Washington Post. 

To learn more and support this lecture series, visit: https://www.international.ucla.edu/burkle/series/136027

SPONSORS

This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, the Daniel Pearl Foundation, Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA, and the University Religious Conference at UCLA.

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