by Kylie Handler, editor
Top CNN star Jim Acosta consistently makes headlines with his obnoxious outbursts and anti-Trump reporting.
And it’s too much for even the far-left. A liberal news publication recently took aim at CNN’s White House reporter, and claimed Acosta has become a “performance journalist.”
The Atlantic published an article on Tuesday titled, “Jim Acosta’s Dangerous Brand of Performance Journalism,” detailing how Acosta has “lost the fight” against President Donald Trump’s rhetoric over ‘fake news.’
“Whenever a reporter who has not been kidnapped by terrorists, shot by an assailant, or won a big prize becomes an actor in her own story, she has lost the fight,” The Atlantic’s Todd S. Purdum wrote.
Last week, Acosta came in guns blazing to a White House press briefing and immediately went on the attack against White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Purdum writes that Acosta, “Reinforced the corrosive, cynical, and deeply dangerous feedback loop that has convinced Trump’s most fervent supporters that his relentless brief against the press has merit: FAKE NEWS! SAD!”
As noted by The Atlantic, briefings used to be used to broadcast information to the people. Now, the White House press briefings have become a circus where liberal reporters and journalists do some self-promotion and self-expression.
The piece by Purdum specifically references last week’s exchange between Acosta and Sanders where Acosta asked the press secretary if she thought the press was the enemy of the people.
“I think it would be a good thing if you were to say right here at this briefing that the press, the people who are gathered in this room right now, are doing their jobs every day, asking questions of officials like the ones you brought forward earlier, are not the enemy of the people. I … I think we … we deserve that,” Acosta ranted.
Purdum noted that Acosta “interrupted her repeated, finally allowing her to reply,” but the CNN correspondent was not at all happy with Sanders’ response.
“Acosta then cut off his colleagues to demand a follow-up, which elicited yet another demurrer from Sanders—at which point he got up and walked out of the briefing room,” Purdum explained.
Dear Diary,
Today I demanded a woman say what I wanted her to say, and when she said something different and critical of me, I stormed out. https://t.co/B2uBTeEP3m— Mollie (@MZHemingway) August 2, 2018
According to The Atlantic, “Acosta’s confrontation—so florid, so vivid—also plays directly into Trump’s received narrative about a hostile, combative, and even unfair press.”
“Acosta’s broadside blurs the line between reporting and performance, between work and war, at a time when journalists have a greater obligation than ever to demonstrate that what they do is real, and matters—and is not just part of the passing show,” Purdum concluded.
Even though Acosta may put on a show for the media, his ratings still are not high enough to impress anyone.
–Kylie Handler is a news editor for The Horn News