Jim Acosta’s blow-up with President Trump showcased the true nature of the media, The Daily Wire’s own Andrew Klavan explained on his podcast Thursday. Acosta’s holier-than-thou attitude permeates across the mainstream media, the host argued, and President Donald Trump is the perfect antidote to that.
“Acosta is a buffoon, and he’s kind of a thug, he’s kind of a jerk,” said Klavan. “What he did to [the White House intern] was part of his jerkiness. But I’m not gonna accuse him of assaulting a female, I think we’ve gone too far with this stuff. When you’re working in the bigs, things get a little bit rough. But Acosta was totally out of line.”
Klavan criticized Acosta for trying to insert his own opinion on Trump, saying, “His opinion matters exactly zero percent” and that it was not the CNN reporter’s job to correct the president.
“In other words, Jim Acosta is a bad version of bad journalism that the Left has been elevating all this time,” he said. “Jim Acosta’s entitled to his opinion, I just don’t want to hear it, and I don’t know why we should.”
“Jake Tapper, his dainty shock that a reporter should get the boot the way Acosta got the boot is not in keeping with the reaction of the press corps to Barack Obama,” Klavan pointed out. “Remember Saint Barack Obama, the savior of our nation? Who treated someone shouting rude questions at him like this, had him thrown out. But the incredible part is the reaction of the press! What you hear in the background is the press reacting to President Obama throwing out a rude questioner – the press corps, chants ‘Obama! Obama!’ Are you freaking kidding me? Member’s of the press, this is why we hate you.”
Video and transcript below:
Acosta is a buffoon, and he’s kind of a thug, he’s kind of a jerk. What he did to her was part of his jerkiness. But I’m not gonna accuse him of assaulting a female, I think we’ve gone too far with this stuff. When you’re working in the bigs, things get a little bit rough. But Acosta was totally out of line.
To me, though, the important thing is he was not practicing journalism. Donald Trump in that exchange was 100 percent in the right. They keep saying “well the President has to be ready for hard questions” – he didn’t ask a hard question! He said “you say it’s an invasion, I say it’s not.” Trump, quite rightly, said “we have a difference of opinion.” What is the importance of Jim Acosta’s opinion? He’s a reporter, his opinion matters exactly zero percent. This is, in essence, the entire problem. That Jim Acosta thinks his job is to correct the president’s opinion with his own. That’s not journalism – it’s not even smart! He’s not some kind of expert, he’s not saying “well there was this, and you didn’t call it an invasion then, etc.” All he’s doing is saying” you’re wrong, and I’m right because I’m Jim Acosta, so look at me.”
The thing is, I’m absolutely certain that Acosta is basing his journalistic career on Sam Donaldson and Dan Rather. The thing about Donaldson and Rather, first of all, is Rather ended his career in disgrace when it was shown that he was peddling fake documents in an attempt to get George W. Bush on nothing, on some stupid little violation of regulations when he was in the national guard that would have meant nothing. It was years and years and years ago, it just would have been completely unimportant. Yet he so hated him, he disgraced himself, ended his professional career. You can have Robert Redford play him in the movies all you want, he still is a bad journalist who disgraced himself. Donaldson too was an opinion journalist as well, and when he went after Nixon he was doing it for his opinion too.
In other words, Jim Acosta is a bad version of bad journalism that the Left has been elevating all this time. Here is Jake Tapper and Jim Acosta, the two of them preening in this moment, and I’ll talk about something after this that puts everything they say here to shame – but here’s their exchange:
Tapper: “President Trump did something that I’ve never seen an American President do, which is go on a personal rant against you for the questions you were attempting to ask.
Acosta: “Well Jake, when they go low, we keep doing our jobs. I had a question to ask, and if we had played the tape a little before that exchange, you would have seen the question I was asking – which was essentially about this lie that he told before the midterm elections that this caravan of migrants moving from Central America to the U.S. border with Mexico was somehow an invasion, when it’s not. Their still hundreds of miles away and they pose nothing of a threat to the United States, but the President used that language, obviously, to galvanize his base. He just didn’t like hearing that question, he didn’t like being challenged on that point, and he certainly doesn’t like being called out for his falsehoods.”
It’s not a falsehood! It’s a different characterization, there’s no falsehood involved. This thing that they’ve come up with, that ‘it’s still hundreds of miles away.” I mean look, at this point the caravan is all broken up and kind of disappeared. But to say it’s hundreds of miles away, that means nothing. To say it’s not a threat – on what basis are you saying that? On what basis are you saying that thousands of people, at one point it was close to 15,000 people, marching this way is not a threat? This is like when Alexander the Great invaded Greece. They were going “maybe he won’t come this way” – what are you talking about? If a foreign invasion force was hundreds of miles away, rolling in this direction, would that not be a threat?
Jim Acosta’s entitled to his opinion, I just don’t want to hear it, and I don’t know why we should. Jake Tapper, his dainty shock that a reporter should get the boot the way Acosta got the boot is not in keeping with the reaction of the press corps to Barack Obama. Remember Saint Barack Obama, the savior of our nation? Who treated someone shouting rude questions at him like this, had him thrown out. But the incredible part is the reaction of the press! What you hear in the background is the press reacting to President Obama throwing out a rude questioner – the press corps, chants “Obama! Obama!”
Are you freaking kidding me? Member’s of the press, this is why we hate you. We hate you because you lie. We hate you because you lied to us for eight years, you treated Obama like he was heaven sent. I think he was incompetent and a leftist, and I think both those things are bad for a President. I don’t think he was evil, I think he was ignorant, I think he was one of those guys who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. I think he ran dishonestly – he ran as a centrist and he became a leftist. He basically tried to inter-sectionalize a country. I think he has failed, it’s amazing the way Donald Trump has erased his memory, we can barely remember what he stood for or what he did, it’s almost all gone except for this awful wreckage of Obamacare that keeps dragging us down, it’s like a can tied to a dog’s tail. But this is why we hate you. It’s not because of what you do to Trump, if you had done it to Obama too, we might still think “oh you’re rude” – but at least you’d be treating everybody the same way. You are liars, and when Trump says you’re the enemy of the people – ok, that may be over the top – but you’re certainly the enemy of the President, you’re certainly the enemy of conservatives, you’re certainly the enemy of traditional Americanism, and you’re certainly the enemy of the Republican Party.
The best thing Trump is doing is attacking you, because you deserve it for what you did with Obama. It’s not what you do to Trump, torment the President all you want. What do they say? “Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted”? Fine, but for eight years you didn’t do it. Now you’re saying, “can we be journalists again?” No, no you can’t. Now you’re just partisans, now you’re just commentators and you’re liars, and that’s why we hate you. You deserve it, you’ve earned it, you went out and got it yourself, good for you – and you’re still doing it.
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