“I don’t think the crisis right now is about the news media,” said left-wing CNN Democrat Jim Acosta during a Monday evening discussion panel at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C.
Asked by Frank Sesno – a professor of media and public affairs at GWU and CNN alumnus – about how CNN and the broader news media industry can regain credibility with the public, Acosta deflected:
“I think the crisis right now is about the truth. We are going to be in dogged pursuit of the truth no matter what happens to us, Frank. And forgive me if I sound like I’m getting up on my high horse. You asked Sean Spicer, ‘Are you gonna throw [CNN] out of the White House?’ They can throw us out of the White House. They can kick us down the street. We’ll set up our trucks on Pennsylvania Avenue. We’ll do the exact same stories every day. It does not matter what they do, because we’re here to do a job. That’s all we’re doing, Frank, is doing our job.”
Acosta then credited President Donald Trump’s derision of the news media with generating widespread mistrust of his employer and the broader news media landscape.
CNN’s Brian Stelter – a left-wing Democrat who presents himself as objective and nonpartisan – has attempted to frame himself as a defender of the First Amendment’s protections for a free press, portraying Trump as a threat to journalistic integrity.
At no point in the discussion did Acosta acknowledge widespread left-wing and partisan Democrat biases at CNN or the broader news media landscape.
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