diff --git a/pkg/report/validate.go b/pkg/report/validate.go
index f4e059b092..4f0f451d54 100644
--- a/pkg/report/validate.go
+++ b/pkg/report/validate.go
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 package report
 
-import "strings"
+import (
+	"regexp"
+)
+
+// check for json and {{json }} which is not valid go template,
+// {{json .}} is valid and thus not matched
+var jsonRegex = regexp.MustCompile(`^\s*(json|{{\s*json\s*}})\s*$`)
 
 // JSONFormat test CLI --format string to be a JSON request
 //
@@ -8,5 +14,5 @@ import "strings"
 //	  ... process JSON and output
 //	}
 func IsJSON(s string) bool {
-	return strings.TrimSpace(s) == "json"
+	return jsonRegex.MatchString(s)
 }
diff --git a/pkg/report/validate_test.go b/pkg/report/validate_test.go
index 3e21e4550a..242634c82a 100644
--- a/pkg/report/validate_test.go
+++ b/pkg/report/validate_test.go
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@ func TestIsJSON(t *testing.T) {
 		{" json", true},
 		{" json ", true},
 		{"  json   ", true},
-		{"{{json}}", false},
-		{"{{json }}", false},
+		{"{{json}}", true},
+		{"{{json }}", true},
 		{"{{json .}}", false},
 		{"{{ json .}}", false},
 		{"{{ json . }}", false},