Gage Skidmore
Jim Acosta speaking at a 2016 campaign rally for Donald Trump at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Bob Woodward doesn’t like it one bit.
The legendary investigative reporter has chastised CNN because it is suing the Trump administration for revoking the White House press credentials of its star reporter, Jim Acosta.
“In the news media there has been an emotional reaction to Trump,” Woodward clucked to an audience in Florida. “Too many people for Trump or against Trump have become emotionally unhinged about this.”
He said the cable news giant should respond instead by producing more “serious reporting” about what Trump is doing.
As a career journalist now working for an outlet that leans unabashedly left, I disagree. There is absolutely no reason CNN cannot both continue to competently report on Trump’s daily blunders and also vigorously defend itself when he seeks to punish one of its reporters for doing his job.
On Nov. 16, a federal judge appointed by Trump sided with the network in granting a temporary restraining order to restore Acosta’s credentials, which were revoked after Acosta persisted in asking questions at a Nov. 7 news conference. Trump, who has touted a clearly doctored video to falsely claim Acosta assaulted an aide who tried to take his microphone away, berated Acosta as “a rude, terrible person” and said “CNN should be ashamed of itself” for having him in its employ.
Trump is entitled to his opinion, as are the millions of people, myself included, who consider the president himself to be a terrible person and are ashamed by his behavior. But it does not give anyone the right to run roughshod over the Constitution. A previous federal court decision found that “arbitrary or content-based criteria for press pass issuance are prohibited under the First Amendment.”
“While the suit is specific to CNN and Acosta, this could have happened to anyone,” the network said in a statement. “If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials.”
There is a clear link between Trump’s reckless rhetoric about the press and CNN being targeted to receive a pipe bomb.
The Trump administration, in response to the CNN lawsuit, has expressly asserted that the president has “absolute discretion” to exclude media he doesn’t like. That’s contrary to established law and precedent. And it explains why news outlets from the Washington Post (Woodward’s paper) to Fox News are siding with CNN in its lawsuit.
Trump’s attacks on the press are not just disingenuous – every reporter I know has a far greater commitment to fairness and accuracy than the president – but dangerous. There is a clear link between Trump’s reckless rhetoric about the press being “the enemy of the people” and CNN being targeted to receive pipe bombs from a deranged Trump supporter. (The alleged perpetrator had a sign on his van proclaiming “CNN sucks,” echoing a chant that often erupts at Trump rallies.)
The decision to revoke Acosta’s credentials is a major escalation of his war on the press; it deserves to be met with serious pushback, not a shrug of resignation.
CNN is right to stand up for itself and fight back. Let’s hope the judge makes permanent the rebuke he has issued to the president’s lawlessness, as the case plays on.
This column was written for the magazine’s Progressive Media Project and distributed by Tribune News Service.