A resplendent day for Jim Acosta and journalistic integrity
PLUS: Join Ron Fournier and me on Substack Live TONIGHT at 8 pm ET
CNN’s Jim Acosta would not get in line.
The simple truth is that some people are not inclined to genuflect to power, or capable of gaslighting the public — or themselves — no matter how much is put down in from of them to do so.
Today, was another bad day for America’s collapsing corporate media companies. Any claim to stand for any value beyond the whims of ownership, which increasingly holds the truth bound like they do their abused shareholders is absurd.
It was, however, a resplendent day for Jim Acosta, integrity and journalism.
Spread his important words, and do not let anyone tell you that they are overwrought.
Have no doubt that they will be the same people telling you that this disgrace didn’t happen:
This is the antidote: my friends, let me introduce you to a journalist:
I just wanted to end today’s show by thanking all of the wonderful people who work behind the scenes at this network.
You may have seen some reports about me and the show, and after giving all of this some careful consideration and weighing in alternative timeslots CNN offered me, I’ve decided to move on. I am grateful to CNN for the nearly 18 years I’ve spent here doing the news.
People often ask me if the highlight of my career at CNN was at the White House covering Donald Trump.
Actually, no. That moment came here when I covered former President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba in 2016 and had the chance to question the dictator there, Raul Castro, about the island’s political prisoners.
As the son of a Cuban refugee, I took home this lesson: It is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant.
I have always believed it’s the job of the press to hold power to account. I’ve always tried to do that here at CNN, and I plan on doing all of that in the future.
One final message. Don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth and to hope.
Even if you have to get out your phone, record that message. I will not give in to the lies. “I will not give in to the fear!”
Post it on your social media so people can hear from you, too.
I’ll have more to say about my plans in the coming days. But until then, I want to thank all of you for tuning in. It has been an honor to be welcomed into your home for all these years.
That’s the news. Reporting from Washington. I’m Jim Acosta.
Jim Acosta is a journalist with integrity, grit and guts. He would not bend the knee to his corporate masters, nor to MAGA, because he stood up for you and the concept that the most powerful people in the world owe you an explanation, and not the other way around.
Now he is leaving the network because CNN practices compliance and absurdism.
Being “nice” to Donald Trump is what counts as balance these days.
Like all of Trump’s opponents, CNN has been undone by cynicism and hypocrisy that is unmatched by any force in America — with the exception of Donald Trump’s ability to absorb their barbs, while illuminating them as being everything he says they are.
David Zaslav has wrecked CNN as surely as Jeff Bezos has eviscerated The Washington Post, with capitulant ass-kissing dressed up as fairness and purposeful omissions, curated for an audience of one that blinds us all to what is happening in front of our eyes in the plain light of day.
There is no such thing as centrism in American politics. There is no centrist geography. At best, it is a disposition towards pragmatism and moderation, which, when combined with humility and wisdom, can have a powerful effect on politics.
But there is no inherent constituency demanding such things.
When one side offers rage, anger, bitterness and grievance as an antidote to the problems of the day, the only conceivable alternative is better, not worse.
What CNN has mostly produced over 10 long years with few exceptions is a journalism of contempt, perfectly suited for a marriage of contempt with the most dishonest elements of American politics, culture and life.
It helped author the trust Armageddon that invigorated the demagoguery of Donald Trump, and helped lift his movement from the sewer to the White House.
What David Zaslav doesn’t comprehend is that what he seeks doesn’t exist.
Centrism is terminology used to chart a waypoint on a flat line that seeks to contextualize and explain a range of positions that were anchored in cogent ideologies and philosophies that have all faded to black.
The word today is no different than Copperhead, free spoiler, abolitionist or Whig.
It represents a space in the political firmament from a closed era that will never return in the same way that the 1840s, 1910s and 1990s won’t.
It’s gone.
CNN had a contempt problem.
His name was Don Lemon.
His obnoxiousness and unctuous condescension’s debased the mission of CNN. It tarnished the noble vision of Ted Turner, a giant in the history of American journalism, that became debased by the same greed and sophistry that annihilated the American political system.
CNN didn’t just fail to transcend America’s contempt problem, it actually made it worse.
Here is a pristine example, featuring former CNN anchor Don Lemon and Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson.
This is a despicable moment.
This is why Trump is in the White House.
The result is the moral disaster at hand and the total implosion of credibility at the cable news networks. They got nothing in return except the contempt of Donald Trump, who disdains their softness and seeks to break them because he knows how hollow, weak and pathetic they are. He knows the game. He wrote the game.
For the record, why didn’t CNN’s Scott Jennings want to give a heartfelt salute to the table last night?
Trump will hunt down integrity at the broken television networks. When he finds it in the form of a truthteller like Jim Acosta he will demand satisfaction.
He will demand retribution.
David Zaslav appeased power, and sent Jim Acosta to the midnight hour, and then out the door, because the practice of journalism has become a threat to the big corporations’ license to merge and print debt.
Zaslav was timid when he should be tough, and weak when it is required that he be strong.
David Zaslav and his British lackey Mark Thompson are the wrong men in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When it comes to the defense of the truth against the lie, decency against malice, and liberty against the state, they are outmatched, too soft and utterly indifferent.
They shattered what Ted Turner imagined into being and gifted to the world — until it was ruined by the type of men he despised.
Let us not credit Donald Trump with a murder when it comes to the collapse of America’s cable newsrooms and political media.
It was a suicide.
We live in a momentous and dangerous time.
The American media has lost power, reach, legitimacy, trust and respect because they won’t stop lying to the American people, while condescending to them and demanding veneration as truthtellers.
Contempt is the dirty fuel of the Trump era.
It darkens the sky, and in the end, abets an extremist movement because it obscures the possibility of having a debate about anything better. Ever.
The downward spiral that is created by contempt as a marketing strategy pulls everyone’s eyes downward. That, in this case, is towards the abyss — with the end of American democracy, liberty and human rights at the catastrophic bottom.
Contempt debases disagreement by brutally and inescapably personalizing it.
It destroys the possibility of good faith and rapprochement because its structure is iron.
“I’m right because you’re stupid, evil and dumb” drives a reciprocal response from the insulted, abused and condescended.
The American media, and specifically the American political media, drives an enormous amount of contempt in society.
It has only ever benefitted the cause of Donald Trump.
Contempt destabilizes relationships.
Contempt has destabilized American society.
The American political media industrial complex is a multibillion-dollar industry that has monetized contempt, and spread it into every crevice of society.
Those institutions have predictably and reciprocally come to be despised by both their audiences, and a majority of society who hates them without ever watching.
The overwhelming majority of Americans does not trust the media. Yet, the media — as represented by the American political press — absurdly self-proclaims some type of ethical standing and secular priesthood status as guardians of the truth.
The number of straight-shooting reporters with unimpeachable reputations for fairness, integrity, intelligence and inquisitiveness is infinitesimally small.
What wrecked CNN wasn’t the reporters; it was the terribly cynical leadership and the dishonest commentators.
CNN helped equalize the truth and the lie by making it impossible to tell what was what.
The moment requires a ferocious commitment to the truth, facts and humility.
It requires news organizations that trade transactions for accountability.
What CNN should do is afflict the powerful, but it can’t because it is an agent of power that seeks its favor and permission.
The unprecedented concentrations of power, wealth and control across the economy and government have destabilized society, and a destabilized society has raised up Donald Trump.
The American media has had glorious moments and low ones just like the country that makes possible their work. CNN was a national treasure — just like the man who founded it.
Then it wasn’t.
Balance must not become perverted into meaning the lie must have a chance to breathe.
There will be a singular test that will indicate where CNN is going next.
CNN executives should appreciate that balance doesn’t mean pretending that a certain letter next to a political title isn’t a double 00 license to kill reality.
Allowing Scott Jennings to pervert the truth and piss on both reality and the audience isn’t balance.
It’s a dangerous delusion.
Most days, it looks like tryouts for state media. The whole point of CNN in the first place was to make sure we didn’t ever have to worry about state media.
Follow
.Support independent journalism.
Join a conversation between Ron Fournier and me on Substack Live TONIGHT at 8 pm ET
To join tonight's 8 pm ET Substack Live with
of and me, simply download the Substack iPhone or Android app. You'll be able to watch our conversation in real time.This event is open to ALL subscribers, whether paid or free.
Hope to see you tonight!
Steve
P.S. If you're having any issues downloading the Substack app, read the steps in this article.
Love Jim Acosta!!!
We should all be Jim Acosta’s. I stand with Jim Acosta. Truth. Integrity. Decency. Courage.
I wrote him privately weeks ago to ask him to move to Substack. I knew he had the integrity to do it. This is so exciting. CNN should be working on its own obituary-the death of Fox News Jr.