Jim Acosta may be stuck behind a desk, but the self-righteousness from his days as White House correspondent reappeared on Saturday’s CNN Newsroom as he hyped a new HBO documentary executive produced by Ronan Farrow entitled Endangered. As Acosta tells it, journalists are under attack around the world, including in America where conservatives don’t trust them.
During a promotional interview with Farrow, Acosta introduced a clip from the documentary, “Yeah, I mean, as—as-- the truth is under attack, journalists are under attack. It only goes that one would follow the other. And as part of the documentary, you follow a journalist for The Guardian named Oliver who was out covering the Trump campaign in 2020. I probably saw him from time to time.”
The Oliver in question is the ironically named Oliver Laughland, who was shown asking an unidentified female Trump from Youngstown, Ohio, “So, the paper in Youngstown, The Vindicator, closed down recently, meaning that Youngstown is now the biggest city in America without a local newspaper. Were you upset by that?”
For something called Endangered and all of Acosta’s histrionics, the woman very politely, but firmly told Laughland, “No. It's just a sign of the times. They're a dying industry because they are so left-wing progressives, we are not left-wing progressives, so we stopped buying the newspaper. We stopped them just having one point of view, the Democrats. Why am I going to pay for a paper that calls me all kinds of names because I'm a conservative Republican? That’s why they’re a dying industry.”
It's a fair point and one that a serious journalist would take time to consider, but Laughland followed up, “Don’t you think that, though, this community has a right to have accountability journalism in it, though? Because that's what the function of that paper was. It was to hold the powerful to account.”
Maybe if the media consistently held the powerful to account and not just the Republicans or Democrats from the left, that would be a fair point. Instead, it is laughable. As for the woman’s response, she also wasn’t buying it, “No, I don't believe they did. I'm not going to buy a newspaper that doesn't reflect my views.”
Back in studio, Acosta retorted, “There you go. I'm not going to buy a newspaper that doesn't reflect my view. Sums it up right there.”
One doesn’t need to defend echo chambers to see her larger point. For all the talk about journalists standing up against mis and disinformation, the rules only seem to apply to one side.
This segment was sponsored by Verizon.
Here is a transcript for the July 2 show:
CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta
7/2/2022
2:43 PM ET
JIM ACOSTA: Yeah, I mean, as—as-- the truth is under attack, journalists are under attack. It only goes that one would follow the other. And as part of the documentary, you follow a journalist for The Guardian named Oliver who was out covering the Trump campaign in 2020. I probably saw him from time to time. Here is a clip.
OLIVER LAUGHLAND: So, the paper in Youngstown, The Vindicator, closed down recently, meaning that Youngstown is now the biggest city in America without a local newspaper. Were you upset by that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. It's just a sign of the times. They're a dying industry because they are so left-wing progressives, we are not left-wing progressives, so we stopped buying the newspaper. We stopped them just having one point of view, the Democrats. Why am I going to pay for a paper that calls me all kinds of names because I'm a conservative Republican? That’s why they’re a dying industry.
LAUGHLAND: Don’t you think that, though, this community has a right to have accountability journalism in it, though? Because that's what the function of that paper was. It was to hold the powerful to account.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don't believe they did. I'm not going to buy a newspaper that doesn't reflect my views.
ACOSTA: There you go. I'm not going to buy a newspaper that doesn't reflect my view. Sums it up right there.
