Posted on 11/14/2018 2:29:39 PM PST by Kaslin
CNN's war on the Trump White House is now entering the legal system. CNN filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia insisting that denying its chief White House shouter Jim Acosta a permanent press pass has caused "irreparable harm," and that Acosta has a constitutional right to shout at the president under the First and Fifth Amendment rights. How lame is this? Let us count the ways:
1. CNN claims its network is "significantly hampered," causing harm to Americans who "rely on CNN as an essential news source." As a network, CNN is not impaired. It still has more than 10 credentialed White House reporters and producers. The only "harm" might be that Acosta yelling at (and repeatedly interrupting) the president excites CNN's liberal base.
2. CNN claims in court that Acosta is "widely reputed as a diligent and thorough reporter for one of the nation's most respected and widely watched networks." CNN isn't close to the most "widely watched," and it viciously attacks the most "widely watched" network as a pathetic "state-run" channel.
Besides, Acosta isn't very thorough, as exposed in his attempt to ask Trump adviser Stephen Miller about immigrants. He said, "But this whole notion of ... 'they have to learn English before they get to the United States,' are we just going to bring in people from Great Britain and Australia?" Miller calmly explained Acosta was wrong and that many countries have proficient English speakers. And the Washington Post "Fact Checker" agreed.
3. Acosta and his network haven't always been this hostile ("diligent and thorough") in covering presidents. On the day of former President Obama's second inauguration, Acosta proclaimed: "I feel like I should pinch myself right now, Wolf. I can't believe I have this vantage point of history in the making." He later added: "It's good to be the president. It's almost like being a rock star on every street corner of Washington on this day."
CNN senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny infamously channeled Barbara Walters and asked Obama in 2009 (when he was with The New York Times), "what has surprised you the most about this office, enchanted you the most about serving in this office, humbled you the most and troubled you the most?"
4. CNN's court filing bizarrely calls this Trump move on Acosta an attempt to "exclude reporters from the White House who challenge and dispute the President's point of view." Almost every reporter in the White House challenges Trump's point of view, but he's only denying one pass. What makes Acosta so unique? It's the extreme rudeness and the unwillingness to cede the microphone when his turn is over, like he thinks the other reporters are all worthless and weak.
5. On Capitol Hill, journalists denied a press pass to Breitbart News. Should Breitbart have hired a lawyer and sued? There was no security reason to deny Breitbart, just the contention that it isn't really a "news" organization. That, quite clearly, is the president's view about CNN, which spends most of its day assembling panels to trash the president as an ignorant, racist, dangerous, law-abusing tool of the Russians.
6. The president has a right to call on reporters and ignore reporters; he has the right to hold a press conference or not hold one. Former President George W. Bush never took questions from CBS's Dan Rather. President Obama never consented to questions from Fox News' Sean Hannity.
Trump could give Acosta his pass back and then try to ignore his question. But everyone knows that whether Acosta's called on or not, he's going to yell and yell. Neither his bosses nor his colleagues ever think it's time for him to sit down and shut up.
I am surprised the commie propagandist reportards did not sue the intern also.
At this point,it is totally irrelevant what kind of reporter Acosta is. The court is faced with a question of whether the President has the right to determine access to his work space. If he can be dictated to by a private business (CNN) so can the courts and congress. I can just see Mr. Acosta strolling into the Supreme Court and demanding to interrogate the Chief Justice.
They probably will before it’s over.
7. It is CNN. I mean really, given their tumbling viewer share, who gives a rip? So a few radical leftists have to go to one of the other dozens of leftist media outlets. Who, really, would notice?
Jim Acosta is a very, very big deal. In his own tiny mind.
The guy’s a bully and a jerk. He will not win fighting with President Trump although there’s no way you could convince him of that.
I would add to this list - CNN is a division of Time Warner. Time Warner with the merger with AT&T now has near monopoly on all cable broadcast. They are part of an oligopoly but have exclusive cable broadcast rights in every territory they operate - they have an exclusive regional monopolies granted by Congress.
I would argue that CNN is only “important” because it has and is part of a monopoly. It does not have to compete with all news providers, it is given promotion on the cable network commercials, it is given a prominent ranking channel position on the cable box, and Time Warner has the right and ability to squash competitors to CNN by refusing them access to cable broadcast.
CNN is part of an oligopoly of cable news channels that is run by a monopolistic corporation, and receives several forms of subsidy as a result of this arrangement. This has to be part of the calculus why Fox News filed amicus brief - Fox is in some ways at the mercy of CNN’s parent company. Sure they have self-interest in protecting their own access to the WH, but they also have self-interest in playing nice with Time Warner.
As the article outlines, many outlets are denied access. CNN is only special because it is part of a rigged system that closes out most of the potential competition. Sure they allow some other news networks broadcast channels, but they all pay a high price to access the cable. There are plenty of would-be challengers who are trying to broadcast on internet-only that would love to get a channel on the cable broadcast that Time Warner would likely never permit.
CNN can’t really complain about “competition” when their parent company rigs things in their favor (and they still come in behind many other news outfits).
Proof leftists are elitists:
The 1st: applies only to professional mainstream journalists, not to We The People.
The 2nd: applies only to Federal military, State militias, and local police, not We The People.
They think they are the Ruling Class, and the Bill of Rights does not apply to the People.
Judge will grant CNN their wishes on Acosta.
With today’s technology it should not be a problem to move the entire press room to another building. Then set up desk with microphones (controlled by the White House).
The President could appear on their screen and he could see them. He would then control the microphone of the reporter.
Or...simply give up the daily briefing
Set up a web site where everyone has access and post the daily briefings on the web site.
Such a site already exists and has for awhile.
click link above...bookmark it, get the real skinny daily
Thanks
Now they should closed down the circus known as the press room and send all the clowns home
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