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Everything I learned about how the White House Communications office should operate, I learned from The West Wing. When you’ve got a journalist with an agenda or a grudge in the WH press room, you don’t ban their ass, you put them in the front row. You call on them constantly. That’s the way democracy should work. But under the orange jackboot of Trumpian fascism, journalists and media outlets are under constant physical threat from Donald Trump and his minions. Trump openly targets individual journalists and entire media outlets because he’s such a thin-skinned baby. He flagrantly encourages his supporters to physically attack and target journalists.
Last week, Donald Trump was so mad that Democrats got so much attention during the midterm elections. So he organized a press conference and acted particularly unhinged, especially when CNN’s Jim Acosta asked him some hard questions. Trump threw a tantrum and an intern tried to grab Acosta’s microphone. Sarah Sanders later posted a doctored video to “prove” that Acosta “assaulted” the intern, when literally everyone could watch the original video and Acosta did nothing of the sort. Still, Sanders used the doctored video as a “reason” for why the White House was pulling Acosta’s press pass. Well, CNN just sued the White House.
CNN has filed a lawsuit against President Trump and several of his aides, seeking the immediate restoration of chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s access to the White House. The lawsuit is a response to the White House’s suspension of Acosta’s press pass, known as a Secret Service “hard pass,” last week. The suit alleges that Acosta and CNN’s First and Fifth Amendment rights are being violated by the ban.
Both CNN and Acosta are plaintiffs in the lawsuit. There are six defendants: Trump, chief of staff John Kelly, press secretary Sarah Sanders, deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine, the director of the Secret Service, and the Secret Service officer who took Acosta’s hard pass away last Wednesday. The officer is identified as John Doe in the suit, pending his identification. The six defendants are all named because of their roles in enforcing and announcing Acosta’s suspension.
In a statement on Tuesday morning, CNN said it is seeking a preliminary injunction as soon as possible so that Acosta can return to the White House right away, and a ruling from the court preventing the White House from revoking Acosta’s pass in the future.
“CNN filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration this morning in DC District Court,” the statement read. “It demands the return of the White House credentials of CNN’s Chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acosta’s First Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their Fifth Amendment rights to due process. We have asked this court for an immediate restraining order requiring the pass be returned to Jim, and will seek permanent relief as part of this process.”
[From CNN]
Good for CNN for standing by their journalist and actually following through with this. I mean, CNN is one of the reasons why “President Trump” exists, but at least there’s this too. I’m still sort of flabbergasted – not really – that Trump and his minions get away with telling so many lies, and for being so petty and thin-skinned. They really did suspend Acosta’s press pass because he asked some relatively difficult questions during a press conference. That’s it.
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