Kuhner's Corner: Jim Acosta is No Journalist

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Trump is right to suspend his press pass


CNN is suing President Trump. The reason: The White House suspended Jim Acosta’s press pass. The network is claiming that, by revoking its White House correspondent’s credentials, the Trump administration is violating “freedom of the press” and Acosta’s “due process rights” under the Fifth Amendment.

Nonsense. The decision to impose the ban stems from Acosta’s outrageous, adolescent and unprofessional behavior. He is a grandstanding buffoon, who is no longer wanted—or qualified—to be in the press briefing room. Yet, this hasn’t stopped the establishment media from going after the president. Numerous outlets—NBC, FOX News—have joined CNN’s lawsuit.

The incident that finally forced the White House to act was Acosta’s performance last week, where instead of asking a question he did what he always does: deliver anti-Trump screeds and speeches. This time, however, Acosta refused to surrender the microphone to another reporter, humiliating and mistreating a White House intern in the process. His actions were not just shameful. They were pathetic. I wouldn’t tolerate that kind of puerile, disrespectful behavior from my 6-year-old—never mind from a senior (allegedly adult) correspondent.

Moreover, CNN’s suit is not simply frivolous, but insulting. No one has a right to a White House press pass; rather, it is a privilege—one that Acosta has abused for a long time. On an almost daily basis, Acosta mistreats and insults Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. He levels constant unproven and unsubstantiated allegations against Trump or the administration.

Acosta also engages in shameless showboating and media manipulation. For example, at a Trump press event, in which hundreds of reporters were in the room, Acosta was stuck in the back far away from the president. So what did the CNN hack do? He started pretending to shout questions at Trump, knowing full well that it was impossible for the president (or almost anyone in the room) to hear them. But Acosta made sure it was videotaped and uploaded on YouTube. The deliberate—and false—impression it gave was that Trump was running away from and dodging Acosta’s questions. When in reality it was pure fabrication on the part of Acosta and CNN. It was a classic example of Fake News. But the anti-Trump left ate it up. And it served both of Acosta’s purposes: to damage Trump and boost his celebrity status.

Yet, CNN’s lawsuit has a deeper problem. Acosta is not a real journalist, and CNN is not a real media outlet. When Trump calls CNN Fake News, he is only half right. They are certainly fake, but they are not “news”—at least, not in the traditional sense of the press as it has existed since the inception of America. Rather, Acosta is a Democratic operative posing as a journalist. Historically, journalists were trained—and aspired—to be objective and non-partisan. Their goal was to pursue the truth, by meticulously amassing and corroborating evidence, through honest reporting. For much of the so-called “mainstream media,” those days are long gone. This is especially true of CNN. Acosta’s job is to act as a political hit man for the Democrats. He doesn’t care about truth or objective reporting. Instead, his sole purpose is to smear and lie about the president. He is a liberal activist masquerading as a journalist.

The same goes for CNN. Since Trump’s election, the network has been obsessed with one overriding objective: to oust and impeach Trump. They want to bring his presidency down. CNN is not legitimate news; they are the communications arm of the Democratic Party. They are a propaganda organ, whose mission is to advance a globalist leftist agenda while raking in profits by catering to big money, corporate advertisers.

This is why all of their hosts—from Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon to Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer—relentlessly spew Democratic talking points: the constant drumbeat of Trump-Russia collusion; protecting Robert Mueller at all costs; viciously attacking Brett Kavanaugh; championing open borders, illegal immigration and the migrant caravan; defending Big Tech and its effort to censor free speech; falsely portraying Trump as an authoritarian fascist and white supremacist; calling for the Deep State to rise up and overthrow the Trump administration; and openly inciting left-wing protestors to target, intimidate and bully Republicans and Trump supporters. If the Democratic National Committee created its own TV cable news channel, it couldn’t do a better job than CNN.

For freedom of the press to be violated a media outlet has to be part of a genuine press. CNN—and Jim Acosta—are the exact opposite. They are part of the partisan opposition to Trump. They are a central element of the “Resistance” movement. Hence, the president is right to treat them as such. Pravda has more credibility than CNN. Trump should not only revoke Acosta’s press pass. He should deny all of CNN’s employees their press credentials to be at the White House.

CNN has declared war on Trump. It’s about time he finally declared war on them.

-Jeffrey T. Kuhner is host of “The Kuhner Report” on WRKO AM-680 in Boston. His daily show airs from noon-3:00 pm EST. He can be reached at: jeffreykuhner@iheartmedia.com


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