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Fleischer vs. Acosta: Throw-Down On Media Bias

   DailyWire.com

Left-wing CNN Democrat Jim Acosta denied the political and partisan biases of his employer during a Monday night discussion panel at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C.

Hosted by Frank Sesno, a professor of media and public affairs at GWU and CNN alumnus, the discussion ostensibly sought to examine the relationship between President Donald Trump and the news media. In addition to Acosta, the panelists included left-wing journalists Hadas Gold of Politico and Jeff Mason of Reuters, and Ari Fleischer.

After Ari Fleischer warned news media outlets against becoming “an arm of the Democratic Party,” Acosta claimed that widespread media coverage of Trump – at CNN and other large media outlets – during his presidential campaign was evidence against claims of widespread left-wing and partisan Democrat biases across the media landscape.

Sesno asked Acosta of a crisis in journalism regarding its credibility with the American public:

“If a US airline had the approval rating the media have got, they’d be flying empty airplanes and staring bankruptcy in the face. When you go out on the lawn, when CNN thinks about how it’s connecting to the larger public, do you think about that? And how do you win back the public?”

Kellyanne Conway – now Trump’s chief counsel – shared a similar description of the news media industry on Sunday in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace for Fox News Sunday.

Fleischer noted that Trump’s popularity and approval ratings were higher than those of news media’s according to recent Gallup polls.

Widespread negative coverage of Trump at CNN and other large media outlets, said Acosta, amounted to good faith journalism:

​”Let me ask you this, did we say that Mexican immigrants are rapists and bringing crime into this country? Did we in the news media refer to women as fat pigs? Did we in the news media say that it was ok to grab a woman by her privates? Did we in the news media say that John McCain is not a war hero? Did we in the media say that you could go out on Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody on the street and get away with it? No, no. Donald Trump said those things, Ari. And the reason why he generated a lot of negative news coverage is because of the things that he said during the course of this campaign. Let me ask you his: What are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to avoid the things that are said by the Republican frontrunner during the course of a campaign? Are we supposed to overlook the outrageous and insensitive things that he says during the course of the campaign and just focus on these policy papers that they’re handing out? And just scale our coverage and just weight it in that direction? Is that what we’re supposed to do? Or are we supposed to look at the totality of that individual who is running for the highest office in the land, the person who wants to be the most powerful person in the world? I would submit to you that, yes, our coverage of Donald Trump was excessive at times, during the primaries, and I think it was to his benefit, I think it was to the detriment of the other Republicans in the field. But at the same time, with that kind of coverage you’re going to get great scrutiny.”

At no point in the one-hour discussion did Acosta or any of the panelists – aside from Fleischer – advance a criticism of the news media landscape regarding its widespread left-wing and partisan Democrat biases.

Acosta also claimed that his “persistent” questioning of Trump during the president’s first presidential press conference was consistent with informal customs of conduct among the White House Press Corps.

Rehashing the comparative focus on crowd sizes between the presidential inaugurations of Barack Obama and Trump, Acosta cast the president as ignoring “self-evident truths.” He neglected to note the fact that Washington, D.C. is one of America’s most partisan Democrat cities with a population that is almost 50% black.

Acosta also pointed to widespread media sympathy for George W. Bush’s appearance at Ground Zero following the Islamic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 as evidence against Fleischer’s depiction of the news media landscape as largely left-wing and aligned with Democrats.

“We’re in the business of journalism,” said Acosta of CNN, neglecting to note his employer’s left-wing and partisan Democrat political advocacy. “I don’t the crisis right now is about the news media. Think the crisis right now is about the truth. And we are going to be in dogged pursuit of the truth, no matter what happens to us… Dif

On news media outlets deploying a different standard towards Trump than other presidents, Acosta provided his justification: “My point is, a different kind of president, maybe a different kind of rulebook.”

CNN President Jeffrey Zucker said his network may have been “a little too liberal” in May of 2016.

Left-wing CNN Democrat Chris Cuomo described his network as the “gold standard” of journalism in December of 2016.

Left-wing CNN Democrat Don Lemon described his network as “[setting] the gold standard” in journalism in November of 2016.

CNN describes itself as “the most trust name in news.”

Watch the entire event here.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.

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