At a Trump rally in Tampa, the poor, downtrodden Clown of the People Jim Acosta of CNN was verbally attacked by supporters of the president. They shouted at him and tried to prevent him from doing his little report-in to the jokers who call themselves CNN anchors. Overall, it was pretty funny. Trump’s most ardent supporters come out to these events, and they know what Acosta’s game is. And while Acosta acted all indignant on social media and the press acted all angry on his behalf, here’s the truth: Acosta and his bosses at CNN are loving every minute of this.
Acosta, from the moment he got the White House gig, has positioned himself to be the president’s #1 arch enemy in the press pool. Every chance he gets, he makes a fool of himself in front of Trump and Sarah Sanders. He’s constantly looking for that loony moment that will get him a few more minutes of TV time. And, because he’s willing to debase himself more than the average reporter, he often gets what he wants. It’s making him a television star, it’s giving him a purpose in life, and it is, presumably, giving him bragging rights at whatever D.C. bar these reporters hang out at when the weekday is done.
On Wednesday, The Daily Mail’s David Martosko tried to ingratiate himself with Acosta for some reason, pressing Sanders on whether or not the White House would denounce the Trump supporters in Tampa.
“Is the White House willing to say right now, in view of what happened with one of our TV colleagues last night, that it is wrong for his most vocal supporters to be menacing towards journalists doing their job in a situation like that or any situation?” Martosko asked.
Sanders assured Martosko that President Trump “does not support violence,” but said that it was important for Acosta and others to take into consideration WHY the president’s supporters are so outraged at the mainstream press.
“We fully support a free press,” she said. “There also comes a high level of responsibility with that. The media routinely reports on classified information and government secrets that put lives in danger and risk valuable national security tools. Unfortunately it’s now standard to abandon common sense ethical practices. This is a two-way street. We certainly support free press, condemn violence against anybody but we ask people act responsibly and report accurately and fairly.”
Unhappy about the answer he got, Martosko tweeted: “So the takeaway is that the White House won’t discourage the president’s crowds from shouting down reporters and yelling that their networks suck during live broadcasts. Good to know. There’s a First Amendment tension between speech and press, and ultimately one side must lose.”
Well, if that’s the case – if there is a war between freedom of the press and freedom of speech – then we damn sure hope it is the mainstream media that loses. We take it from Martosko’s tweet that he’s cheering for CNN, but we’ll stand up for the rights of average Americans to yell at Jim Acosta ANY DAY over Acosta’s right to do a stand-up at a Trump rally.
