CNN’s Jim Acosta says he has never witnessed an instance where news outlets try to “damage one particular party or help another.”
The network’s chief White House correspondent — a persistent critic of President Trump — told Publishers Weekly magazine that his peers, from what he’s witnessed, have always been straight shooters when it comes to covering the White House.
“Is there a grain of truth to claims of biased coverage of President Trump and his supporters by the mainstream media?” the magazine asked in an interview published Tuesday.
“I have never witnessed a concerted effort by any news organization to take a stand one way or the other on a political issue, to damage one particular party or help another,” he responded. “We have been far more honest and straightforward with the American people than President Trump has. Are there times when we fall short? Sure. But the press issues corrections. When was the last time you saw the president issue a correction or a clarification? It’s a rare thing for Donald J. Trump.”
Mr. Acosta’s response came while promoting his book “The Enemy of the People,” which excoriates the Trump administration.
“There aren’t two sides to the story when it’s a matter of right and wrong,” he noted at another point, which echoed a similar sentiment made by colleague Don Lemon at Variety’s Entertainment & Technology NYC Summit in May 2018.
Mr. Lemon claimed, for all intents and purposes, to possess objective truth when it came to the White House, which led him to conclude “nothing else but this president being racist.”
“He’s certainly racist-adjacent,” Mr. Lemon, the keynote speaker, added. “If you have the evidence that shows you, that leads you to nothing else but this president being racist, then I feel it’s my obligation as a journalist to say it. On [Jan. 11 when] I said it, and I don’t regret saying it. I believe that to be true.”
The media watchdog NewsBusters called Mr. Acosta’s claim “about as plausible as saying ’I have never witnessed any person eating a hamburger.’”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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