A Little Truth about Jim Acosta and the CNN-Trump Dispute: CNN Still Has 50 Press Passes

Crystal Woodall : Nov 14, 2018
CBN News

"Reporters have a responsibility not to make the story about them. And I think what we're seeing so often is reporters are playing the victim with this administration when this is the most accessible administration, I would say, ever in history." -CBN News Senior Washington Correspondent Jennifer Wishon

[CBN News] CNN is suing the Trump administration along with several of the president's aides, demanding White House press credentials be returned to its chief correspondent, Jim Acosta. (Screengrab via CBN News)

"This is just more grandstanding from CNN, and we will vigorously defend against this lawsuit," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Tuesday. "CNN, who has nearly 50 additional hard pass holders, and Mr. Acosta is no more or less special than any other media outlet or reporter with respect to the First Amendment."

The move by CNN is just part of the continuing fallout from a recent heated confrontation between Acosta and President Donald Trump.

After a fiery back and forth between the two at a post-election press conference, the White House suspended the CNN correspondent's hard pass credentials.

Defending the decision, administration officials accused him of "placing his hands" on a press aide when she tried to retrieve the microphone from him—something Acosta and CNN deny.

CBN News Senior Washington Correspondent Jennifer Wishon weighed in on the matter, stressing the importance of journalists remaining objective and not inserting themselves into their news coverage.

"Reporters have a responsibility not to make the story about them," she told "Faith Nation" host Jenna Browder. "And I think what we're seeing so often is reporters are playing the victim with this administration when this is the most accessible administration, I would say, ever in history."

Nevertheless, Wishon suggested the White House's decision to yank Acosta's hard pass may not have been the wisest course of action.

"I think that it was the wrong decision for the White House to revoke his hard pass because it only draws more attention, it seems extreme and it also makes Acosta a hero to his base," she explained.

She points out that every White House administration plays a role in which members of the press are given access, but she also warned of serious First Amendment implications, saying the latest move could have a chilling effect on the media.

"It's dangerous, quite frankly," Wishon said. "Reporters should be able to go to the White House and cover presidents without fear of reprisal."

Meanwhile, in a Nov. 8 commentary by the journalism organization Poynter, Al Tompkins and Kelly McBride are urging other reporters to use the situation as a learning experience.

"This is in no way a defense of Trump's suspension of Acosta's White House press credentials," they wrote. "Rather, it's a caution to not hand your critic the stick to beat you with."

Tompkins and McBride noted how Acosta's manner of confronting Trump contained the accusation that the president was demonizing the migrant caravan that's heading towards America's southern border.

"It is not an invasion," Acosta told the president.

Tompkins and McBride wrote, "Had Acosta phrased his question in a more neutral tone, he likely would have had more information for his audience to digest." Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here