Journalism

CNN said that it is suing President Donald Trump and other administration officials over the decision to suspend the White House press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta after a conflict at a news conference. The lawsuit, to be filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates an ongoing battle between President Trump and the cable news outlet that he frequently accuses of disseminating “fake news” for its aggressive coverage of him and his administration.

House Democrats plan to investigate whether President Donald Trump abused White House power by targeting — and trying to punish with "instruments of state power" — the Washington Post and CNN, said incoming-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA). Rep Schiff said President Trump "was secretly meeting with the postmaster [general] in an effort to browbeat the postmaster [general] into raising postal rates on Amazon." "This appears to be an effort by the president to use the instruments of state power to punish Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post," Rep Schiff said.

President Donald Trump suggested he could pull press credentials from other reporters who don't show him "respect." The comments come two days after the president suspended the press pass of CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta after a contentious exchange during a news conference. "I think Jim Acosta is a very unprofessional man," President Trump said. Asked how long Acosta's credentials will be suspended, the president replied: "As far as I'm concerned, I haven't made that decision.

The “fake news” wars have reached a new peak. While the president continues to accuse journalists and his opponents of spreading “fake news,” evidence mounts of extensive right-wing disinformation efforts, many aimed at boosting President Doanld Trump and sowing discord among his opponents. The result: Those who cry “fake news” the loudest remain the ones most responsible for circulating it. President Trump and his supporters have dominated the conversation on “fake news” by repackaging a political tactic as old as American democracy itself.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders the night of Nov 7 shared a video of CNN reporter Jim Acosta that appeared to have been altered to make his actions at a news conference look more aggressive toward a White House intern. The edited video looks authentic: Acosta appeared to swiftly chop down on the arm of an aide as he held onto a microphone while questioning President Donald Trump. But in the original video, Acosta’s arm appears to move only as a response to a tussle for the microphone. His statement, “Pardon me, ma’am,” is not included in the video Sanders shared.

During a press conference following Nov 6's midterm election, President Donald Trump escalated his ongoing war of words with CNN’s Jim Acosta. When Acosta asked President Trump about inflating the supposed threat to America from the caravan, he responded, “Honestly, I think you should let me run the country and you run CNN.” Acosta refused to relinquish his microphone, physically tangling with an aide who sought to take it away from him. Shouting over President Trump’s attempts to move on to another reporter, Acosta managed to ask a question about the Russia investigation.

On his way to campaign rallies in West Virginia and Indiana on Nov 2, President Donald Trump stopped to answer some questions from the media. Karen Travers of ABC News raised a question that’s gained heightened attention recently after a fervent President Trump supporter allegedly mailed bombs to Democratic officials and after a man echoing President Trump’s rhetoric on immigration allegedly killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. “Half of Americans say you’re encouraging politically motivated violence with the way you speak,” Travers said.

Americans living in "news deserts" with few or no local news outlets may be in a bind now that it's time to vote in the midterm elections. Fewer and fewer reporters are employed by the papers that typically cover community and state-level races. More and more of the papers are going out of business altogether. As a result there is less vetting of candidates and more confusion about what's even on the ballot. Americans have new tools in their hands -- cell phones with access to Facebook and other websites -- but social networks don't fill the void left by local reporters.

Newsroom employees are more likely to be white and male than US workers overall. There are signs, though, of a turning tide: Younger newsroom employees show greater racial, ethnic and gender diversity than their older colleagues, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of US Census Bureau data. More than three-quarters (77%) of newsroom employees – those who work as reporters, editors, photographers and videographers in the newspaper, broadcasting and internet publishing industries – are non-Hispanic whites, according to the analysis of 2012-2016 American Community Survey data.

CNN president Jeff Zucker, the guy who first brought our president to the small screen when he green-lighted The Apprentice in 2004 while running NBC, had arguably schooled Donald Trump in the art of reality television. Halfway through President Trump’s first term, his instincts remain just as acute. If Fox News represents President Trump’s base and MSNBC has become a friendly platform for the resistance, CNN is the arena where both sides show up for cantankerous battle. “On Fox, you rarely hear from people who don’t support Trump,” Zucker said.