More from Chris Cillizza and Oliver Darcy:
"The anchor, I'm told, signaled to associates in private conversations over the weekend that he intends to depart the network after its chief executive, Mark Thompson, booted him from the morning programming lineup — a move that conspicuously coincided with Donald Trump's return to power.
CNN brass, as we first reported earlier this month, decided to strip Acosta of his 10am show, which he has anchored to great ratings success over the last 11 months, at times even seeing higher viewership than programs in the channel's prime time bloc. Acosta was instead offered the less-than-desirable option of anchoring a show from midnight until 2am ET. CNN pitched the gig to Acosta as anchoring during prime time on the West Coast and said he could move to Los Angeles to host the program. But the reality is the program would have aired at a time in which cable news viewership is at its lowest levels.
When Mark Thompson made this “offer,” it was clearly aimed at either sidelining Acosta within the CNN firmament or, effectively, firing him without saying those words...
From Chris Cillizza
From what my colleague Fred Schneider wrote about CNN 3 weeks ago:
"If you remember the 1990s and are were watching CNN back then, you remember hearing James Earl Jones narrating CNN's trademark slogan: "This is CNN". And that meant something back then. They were seen as basically the 60 Minutes, or the broadcast network nightly newscasts, of news. In some cases they were probably better than those shows, because they had more time to fill and more resources to use just covering current affairs and real news.
Now, the CNN slogan could easily be something like: "CNN: we offend the least", because they are worried about hitting someone or something too hard, because they're worried about losing viewers, regardless of what their facts and information from their reporters is reporting about the situation or individuals that are involved in the story. As if what they're doing now (whatever it is) is not costing them viewers...
From The New Democrat
I just want to respond to 1 of the final points that Chris Cilliza made on his video today before I get into what I really want to talk about here.
Cillizza said he doesn't know Jim Acosta well. He didn't even know him well when he was at CNN with Acosta. But that Acosta always stuck Cillizza as a tough but fair reporter. And then he went on to say that he wished Acosta well and would hope that Acosta would get into independent journalism and start his own YouTube channel. And there would be plenty of room for him.
So my point here is that Chris Cillizza could have been really tough on 1 of his former employers which is CNN. But instead held back and basically offered a man that he admits to not knowing very well, career advice. Which suggests to me that maybe Cilliza sees an opportunity for him to get back on CNN. Or is at least holding out hope on that.
According to Oliver Darcy who also used to work for CNN as a media reporter and who is now doing that independently, Jim Acosta was 1 of the highest rated anchors that they had there. And as Chris Cillizza said so himself, Acosta is a very "tough, but fair" reporter.
I would add to that, Jim Acosta is the Ted Koppel or Mike Wallace (for anyone who reads this who is old enough to remember the 1980s and 90s) of CNN. Someone who brings people on his show, or interviews them in his pieces, to find things out that are important to the American people. And when he thought 1 of his guests was trying to dodge his questions, he would break in and say something like:
"Excuse me, Sir, that's not what I asked you", and then would just repeat the question. Which is what Ted Koppel did almost every night on ABC News Nightline, when he had a guest who wasn't friendly and he had that person on to give them a tough interview. And that's why Jim Acosta was demoted by CNN because he was not just doing his job, but did it very well, which is why his ratings were solid. And he was demoted for doing a good job, because the management at CNN is worried that the Trump Administration doesn't like Acosta and people watched his show and didn't like Acosta reporting negative facts and information about The White House and Trump Administration as a whole.
The First Amendment, which covers not just free speech, but free assembly, freedom of religion, and of course freedom of the press, is a beautiful thing and extremely important in our liberal democracy:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances...
From Congress.GOV
But similar to a news organization that can only be as good as the people who work there, the freedom of the press can only be as good as our journalists. When they don't utilize their free rights, especially since they're worried about what the party in power would do if they do their jobs well, the free press is much weaker. The free press becomes like a car without an engine or wheels. Jim Acosta wasn't demoted by CNN because his ratings were bad or he didn't do a good job. He was demoted for doing a good job and getting good ratings as a result. And because of that, the free press in America is weaker, thanks to CNN.
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