Everyone looks bad in Acosta affair
Regarding your editorial about CNN, Trump and Acosta, I think you need to get off your high horse.
Neither party is covering itself with glory in this kerfuffle.
But you more than most should recognize that White House news conferences are, for the most part, held so that the White House-based reporters. especially the TV folks ... can look important, get evening news TV airtime, further inflate their egos and appear erudite and preen for their cameras as they try to appear important. Acosta is Exhibits A and B and C. He is closer to a TV news celebrity than an actual reporter.
Acosta and others need dissension and contention more than the truth and thoughtfulness in order to hype their ratings and generate more revenue.
Before TV took over the staging at most news conferences, there were many fine reporters harassing the powerful who thought it was beneath their professional standards to even attend news conferences. I believe I.F. Stone, a famous D.C. reporter, was one of them.
Most of these White House TV folks would be lost and clueless without the news conference format. But with more media outlets and more reporters and more TV time devoted to news and, increasingly, opinion, than ever before, I don't think Acosta losing his or CNN's White House credential is any reason to believe the foundations of our democracy are being rocked or threatened in any meaningful way.
Even the cable networks acknowledge that hype or coverage about Trump is ratings gold. Some of them would be in big financial trouble if they did not have the Trump presidency to kick around. I'll admit that the current administration is a very target rich environment.
Don Ruhter
Barrington