Time was, the function of the reporter was to report the news. Today, it appears that function has been superseded by a need to wallow narcissistically in its wounded self-importance:
The White House’s decision to revoke CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press credentials and its controversial defense for the action was the talk of the Washington, D.C., media on Thursday, though the discussion was muted on his own network.Arguments swelled on social media, MSNBC and Fox News about the White House’s decision and its subsequent explanation for pulling his permanent press pass.
Note the use of the word controversial in describing the White House’s action. If there’s any controversy to the matter, it lies between the president’s defense of his prerogatives and the media’s assertion that “freedom of the press” entitles it to override those prerogatives. In other words, it’s a media fabrication.
As I wrote yesterday, the outrageous behavior of Jim Acosta, who has persistently pushed the outside of the envelope of human arrogance in his dealings with the White House, would not be deemed acceptable if aimed at any ordinary citizen. Yet he strove to impose himself on the president of the United States, a man with responsibilities several orders of magnitude beyond those of any private American. More, he expected to get away with it.
President Trump’s backhanding of Acosta and subsequent suspension of his “hard pass” to the White House were not merely appropriate; they were overdue. The reason is simple:
Egregious behavior that obtains the result it seeks will be repeated and imitated unless punished -- egregiously. But of course, the media will never concede that its hirelings can and should be held to a standard of behavior that binds the rest of us.
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