CNN just picked up another media ally in their lawsuit against the Trump White House for revoking Jim Acosta’s press pass, reports Axios.
According to a statement from Fox News president Jay Wallace, the network not only supports CNN’s lawsuit but will also be filing an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court.
“FOX News supports CNN in its legal effort to regain its White House reporter’s press credential,” reads Wallace’s statement. “We intend to file an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court. Secret Service passes for working White House journalists should never be weaponized.”
The Jay Wallace statement then goes on to characterize the Trump administration’s revocation of Acosta’s pass as an assault on the free press.
“While we don’t condone the growing antagonistic tone by both the President and the press at recent media avails, we do support a free press, access and open exchanges for the American people,” the statement concludes.
Fox News will be joining 10 other news organizations that will be filing an amicus brief in support of CNN:
- AP
- Bloomberg
- First Look Media
- Gannett
- NBC News
- New York Times
- POLITICO
- EW Scripps
- USA Today Network
- Washington Post
The characterization of Jim Acosta’s press pass being pulled as some kind of assault on free press is simply absurd. Last week, the CNN grandstander known as Jim Acosta got into yet another one of his narcissistic exchanges with President Trump that became so heated that Trump told him to sit down. When the White House intern came by to do her job by retrieving the mic, Acosta refused to give it up and lightly pushed her arm down. Later, the White House pulled his press credentials. As anyone who has seen the video of the exchange can see, Acosta was behaving unprofessionally for a correspondent; had he been a conservative for Fox News behaving that way in front of an Obama White House intern, the media would likely have castigated him as a sexist.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has remained firm on the president’s position on Acosta and has doubled down at every turn. In a statement released Wednesday, Sanders said the White House will “vigorously defend” themselves against the smear.
“We have been advised that CNN has filed a complaint challenging the suspension of Jim Acosta’s hard pass. This is just more grandstanding from CNN, and we will vigorously defend against the lawsuit,” said Sanders in the statement. “Mr. Acosta is no more or less special than any other media outlet or reporter with respect to the First Amendment.
To those who would say that the White House blackballed CNN, Sanders noted that the leftist network “has nearly 50 additional hard pass holders.” She also maintained that Acosta was banned for his professional misconduct and nothing more.
“After Mr. Acosta asked the president two questions — each of which the president answered — he physically refused to surrender a White House microphone to an intern so that other reporters might ask their questions,” Sanders said in the statement. “This was not the first time this reporter has inappropriately refused to yield to other reporters.”
Via DailyWire
