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Shame on Fox News for Joining the CNN-Acosta Farce
[American Greatness] Conservatives are rightly shocked and dismayed by two recent decisions by Fox News, an allegedly Republican-friendly organization.

First, Fox decided to ban President Trump’s anti-illegal immigration campaign ad after CNN decided it was "racist." Note that Fox, NBC, and other media outlets didn’t discover this racism on their own. No, they needed that paragon of journalistic integrity, CNN, abetted by a Twitter mob, to find it for them. Hardly a profile in courage or a sign of sound judgment on the part of Fox News.

Now, Fox News has compounded its sins by filing an amicus brief supporting CNN’s recent lawsuit against the White House. The lawsuit aims to force the Trump administration and the Secret Service to restore the press pass of legendary blowhard Jim Acosta. The White House terminated Acosta’s access to the White House grounds after he refused to surrender the floor during a recent press conference. In fact, he refused to give the microphone back to a White House intern who was attempting to reclaim it. This was the last straw for Sarah Sanders, who decided that some semblance of order had to be restored to the interactions between the administration and the press, and some standard of professionalism, respect, and courtesy had to be enforced on White House journalists.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly granted CNN’s request. He temporarily restored Acosta’s press pass, but he also made it clear that no reporter has an absolute right to access the White House or to ask the president questions. He left the door open to the possibility that the White House would be able to draft a formal policy for the revocation of press passes that would pass muster. Sanders and President Trump have made it clear they will soon issue such a policy.

Amazingly, CNN alleged in its lawsuit that Jim Acosta’s constitutional rights had been violated. His rights to free speech, press freedom, and "due process" apparently entitle him to harass the president, at whatever length he deems appropriate, on national television. The audacity of this claim is breathtaking. That Fox News would endorse this specious logic is a bitter blow to those conservatives who thought that Fox, at the very least, could be depended on to give Trump a fair shake. Not so.

Jim Acosta is a free man in a free country. He has been lavish in his criticism of Sanders and Trump, on Twitter and by other means, continuously‐before, during, and after the infamous press conference. No one interfered with his right to free speech in any way, and nor was he at any stage unable to work as a reporter. In fact, more people are listening to the siren song of Acosta-ism now than ever before. One might even say that the volume of his speech has been amplified dramatically, courtesy of the president’s low opinion of him.
Posted by: Besoeker 2018-11-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=527834