Stepping out of line at 70-year-old President-elect Donald Trump’s first post-election press conference, 45-year-old CNN reporter Jim Acosta went ballistic barking uncontrollably when not recognized. Trump bypassed Acosta to protest CNN’s “Breaking News” story the night before, hyping a questionable addendum to the recent intel report about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Whatever the merits of the case, Acosta was out-of-control. As soon as Trump moved to a different reporter, Acosta barked more demands, prompting Trump to ask him to stop disrupting the press conference. Whether or not Acosta felt slighted by the President-elect, he had no right to disrupt the press event, stomping his feet, demanding to be recognized. Acosta claims he knows the ropes of presidential press events but doesn’t accept Trump’s decision to call on a different reporter
Acosta could have shown Trump more deference instead of acting aggressively, making a scene before his colleagues. There’s no journalistic standard to justify boorish behavior in the name of the First Amendment. When Acosta got agitated when not recognized, Trump asked him politely to stop barking out demands. When Acosta couldn’t control himself, Trump asked him to stop acting rudely. “After I asked and I guess demanded that we have a question,” said Acosta, “Sean Spicer, in coming press secretary, did say to me that if I were to do it again, I was going to be thrown out of this press conference,” minimizing his disruptive, aggressive and inappropriate behavior. Acosta wasn’t asking a question, he was throwing a fit in front of the presidential press corps, embarrassing himself, CNN and turning himself into a disruptive protester, not a credentialed journalist.
No journalist has a right to throw a fit, act aggressively and disrupt a presidential press conference. Acosta’s fit prevented other journalists from asking questions while he monopolized the dialogue. CNN’s spent the better part of its programming last night justifying Acosta’s inappropriate behavior. Getting into a dust up with former Trump campaign manager now senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, CNN’s Anderson Cooper kept insisting CNN did nothing wrong running with its “Breaking News” story about the two-page addendum to the intel report. Cooper accused Conway of “conflating” BuzzFeed’s 35-page dossier assembled last Summer as opposition research by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, suggesting the Russians had dirt on Trump. Trump denounced CNN’s report as “fake news,” hyping “Breaking News” over a largely discredited opposition report.
Cooper kept asking Kellyanne where did CNN do anything wrong reporting on the intel community’s two-page addendum. CNN’s attempt to hype the story as “Breaking News” is what irked President-elect Trump, knowing that the report had been circulated in the media for months. Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and one of Trump’s biggest critics on Capitol Hill, admitted he turned over to the FBI last summer the Steele’s opposition research on Trump. Cooper went round-and-round with Kellyanne over a technicality, allowing CNN the right to break the story. Whether or not the story was leaked by the CIA or some other source, CNN felt it had the right to their “Breaking News” over the intel report’s two-page addendum. National Intelligence czar James Clapper admitted the addendum wasn’t intel agency’s property.
Trump reacted harshly to CNN not because they had the technical right to release the story but, more importantly, failing to admit the two-page addendum was based on dubious opposition research paid by the Hillary campaign and Trump’s GOP rivals to discredit his candidacy. Cooper insisted that Trump was conflating the BuzzFeed report but CNN failed to mention egregious inaccuracies to the BuzzFeed report accusing Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen from meeting with Russian agents in Prague last summer. Cohen proved he’s never been to Prague. With glaring falsehoods in the opposition research, you’d think that CNN would have qualified its “Breaking News” story. Trump called CNN’s “Breaking News” fake news precisely because they didn’t debunk key parts of the report. CNN acted like they just uncovered something brand new, not Hillary’s old opposition research.
Acosta’s problem with Trump poses problems for CNN going forward. Throwing a fit at yesterday’s President-elect press conference, Acosta needs to own his disruptive, inappropriate behavior, prompting Spicer’s warning. Spicer threatened to have Acosta removed because he acted too disruptively at the press event, not because he had an inconvenient question for Trump. “Since you are attacking us, you can give us a question,” barked Acosta to Trump. “Not you. You are fake news,” Trump responded back, prompting Acosta to become more aggressive, disruptive and inappropriate. If CNN doesn’t weigh out Acosta’s behavior, they’re not going to get much access to President Trump. Acosta knows as a journalist he can’t stomp his feet or throw a fit if he’s not called on by the President-elect. CNN has more to deal with now than it’s egregious bias against Trump.
