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White House Ends Effort to Suspend Acosta

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Rules Issued for News Conference Conduct

One of the pro-press tweets that circulated after the White House pulled Jim Acosta’s “hard pass” last week.  On Monday, CNN dropped its lawsuit after the White House ended its effort to suspend Acosta’s pass.

Rules Issued for News Conference Conduct

“The Trump White House in a letter says it is dropping its effort to suspend the press pass belonging to CNN’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta but has outlined a set of rules that, if they aren’t followed, ‘may result in suspension or revocation’ of a journalist’s press pass,” Cheyenne Haslett reported Monday for ABC News.

Paul Farhi and Meagan Flynn added for the Washington Post, “It was apparently an about-face from the position that press secretary Sarah Sanders and deputy chief of staff Bill Shine staked out just three days ago when they told Acosta and CNN that they will suspend his press pass again once a temporary restraining order against such an action expires. The 14-day order was issued Friday, and unless the judge extends it, it would expire at the end of the month. . . .”

As Brian Stelter and David Shortell reported for CNN, “Trump seemed to shrug off the loss that day, telling Fox’s Chris Wallace in an interview that ‘it’s not a big deal.’

“He said the White House would ‘create rules and regulations for conduct’ so that the administration can revoke press passes in the future. ‘If he misbehaves,’ Trump said, apparently referring to Acosta, ‘we’ll throw him out or we’ll stop the news conference.’ . . . “

The ABC report continued, ” ‘Your hard pass is restored,’ White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and deputy chief of staff for communications Bill Shine wrote to Acosta. ‘Should you refuse to follow these rules in the future, we will take action in accordance with the rules,’ they wrote after outlining the rules. Trump was ‘aware of this decision and concurs,’ according to the letter. . . .

“The letter from the White House outlines four rules: a journalist ‘will ask a single question and then will yield the floor to other journalists,’ follow-up questions will be permitted ‘at the discretion of the president or other White House officials taking questions,’ ‘yielding the floor’ is defined as ‘physically surrendering’ the microphone and, lastly, ‘failure to abide’ by any of the rules may result in ‘suspension or revocation of the journalist’s hard pass.’

“Acosta was stripped of his press pass without warning earlier this month after a heated exchange during a press conference with President Donald Trump one day after the midterm elections. His press pass was temporarily restored by a court order Friday and the judge ordered both legal teams to submit a status report detailing how they would like to proceed by 3 p.m. on Monday.

“The Friday ruling guaranteed Acosta use of his press pass to the White House through the end of the month. But over the weekend, the White House wasted no time informing Acosta of a ‘preliminary decision’ to suspend his pass after that period is up. Lawyers for CNN responded Monday by filing for an emergency hearing the week after Thanksgiving, ‘or as soon thereafter as possible.’

“CNN has since dropped its suit saying in a statement ‘Today the White House fully restored Jim Acosta’s press pass. As a result, our lawsuit is no longer necessary. We look forward to continuing to cover the White House.’ . . .”

Judge Rules for CNN, Jim Acosta

Nov. 17, 2018

Press Credentials Restored, but a Note of Caution

Khashoggi’s Killers Messed With ‘the Wrong Editor’

Trump ‘Played’ Media on ‘Caravan’

Coverage Falls as President Moves On

Comcast to Add Two More Black Channels

Harvard Crimson Gets First Black Female President

Wall St. Journal Seeks New ‘Tone’ on Diversity

Memphis Reporter Gets 2-Week Stay on Deportation

Reported Hate Crimes Rise for Third Year

58% in Poll Don’t Want Trump Re-Elected

Short Takes

Support Journal-isms

Jim Acosta of CNN during a contentious news conference at the White House on Nov. 7. The Trump administration revoked his press credentials a short time later. (Credit: Doug Mills/New York Times)
Jim Acosta of CNN during a contentious news conference at the White House on Nov. 7. The Trump administration revoked his press credentials a short time later. (Credit: Doug Mills/New York Times)

Press Credentials Restored, but a Note of Caution

“A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore the press credentials of Jim Acosta of CNN, handing the cable network an early win in its lawsuit against the president and members of his administration,” Michael M. Grynbaum and Emily Baumgaertner reported for the New York Times.

However, their story raised a note of caution:

“ ‘This could backfire,’ said William L. Youmans, a professor of media law at George Washington University. Mr. Acosta ‘gets his credential now, but it empowers the Trump administration to come up with conduct-based criteria.’

“ ‘A “rudeness” or “aggressive behavior” policy would have a huge chilling effect, and would be much more damaging to the whole system,’ Dr. Youmans added. ‘If it lowers the bar for pulling credentials, it’s a recipe for a more tepid press.’ . . .

” The case underscored that the entree granted to the White House press corps, which has worked out of the West Wing for decades, relies on custom rather than any legal framework. . . .”

Grynbaum and Baumgaertner wrote, “Presiding over one of the first major tests of press rights under President Trump, Judge Timothy J. Kelly of United States District Court in Washington ruled that the White House had behaved inappropriately in stripping Mr. Acosta of his press badge shortly after a testy exchange at a news conference last week.

“The administration’s process for barring the correspondent ‘is still so shrouded in mystery that the government could not tell me’ who made the decision, Judge Kelly said from the bench. Taking away the pass that gave Mr. Acosta access to the White House amounted to a violation of his right to a fair and transparent process, the judge ruled.’. . .”

Jason Schwartz added for Politico: “Kelly said Friday that he was not ruling on whether the White House violated Acosta’s First Amendment rights by targeting him for his coverage — emphasizing what he called ‘the very limited nature of today’s ruling’ — but he said it appeared officials had yanked the reporter’s press pass without any advance notice or chance to rebut. . . .

“Kelly also noted the White House’s shifting explanations, highlighting that the administration was no longer relying on its initial justification — that Acosta had laid hands on an intern, which was disputed by video of the incident — and that it was only after the lawsuit was filed that the White House fully laid out its argument that Acosta had been banned for disruptive behavior.

“ ‘These belated efforts were hardly sufficient to satisfy due process,’ Kelly said.

“Kelly’s decision Friday does not end the overall case, but it was seen by press advocates as a good sign. . . .”

Paul Farhi wrote for the Washington Post, “CNN issued a statement after the ruling saying, ‘We are gratified with this result and we look forward to a full resolution in the coming days. Our sincere thanks to all who have supported not just CNN, but a free, strong and independent American press.’

“Acosta added: ‘I just want to thank all my colleagues in the press who supported me this week. I want to thank the judge [for this ruling]. And let’s go back to work.”

“In comments made in the Oval Office afterward, Trump said the White House would write rules to satisfy the court’s due-process concerns. He added, ‘We will end up back in court and we will win.’

“Said Trump, ‘We want total freedom of the press…But you have to act with respect when you’re at the White house, and when I see the way some of my people get treated at news conferences, it’s terrible. So we’re setting up a certain standard, which is what the court is requesting…We always have the option of leaving…and the other media and press in the room won’t be happy.’ ”

Brian Stelter, Marshall Cohen, David Shortell and Jessica Schneider added for CNN, “Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, one of the six defendants in the case, did not specify whether the administration would continue to fight the lawsuit in court. But she said ‘we will also further develop rules and processes to ensure fair and orderly press conferences in the future. There must be decorum at the White House.‘

“If the White House does not move to settle the case, a legal battle may continue for months.

“Kelly read his written opinion from the bench for nearly 20 minutes Friday morning.  . . .”

In a later story, Stelter wrote, “CNN won round one of its federal lawsuit against President Trump. But it was only round one. And no one knows how many more rounds there will be.

“We want to just simply move forward and let CNN and Jim Acosta gather news and report it,” CNN lawyer Ted Boutrous said in an interview on Friday.

“He said the law is ‘very clear in terms of how these things should proceed and what the White House can and can’t do.’

Boutrous said CNN would welcome a settlement of the lawsuit, now that Judge Timothy J. Kelly has sided with CNN and forced the government to return Acosta’s press pass for the time being.

“In these situations, Boutrous said, ‘you look for a resolution that makes the most sense so everyone can get out of court and get back to their work. And that goes for the White House and for the journalists. So we’re open to anything.’ . . .”

Khashoggi’s Killers Messed With ‘the Wrong Editor’

Karen Attiah
Karen Attiah

“The CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, contradicting the Saudi government’s claims that he was not involved in the killing, according to people familiar with the matter,” Shane Harris , Greg Miller and Josh Dawsey reported Friday for the Washington Post.

Khashoggi’s editor, Karen Attiah, tweeted, “Saudi Ambassador Khalid Bin Salman needs to be declared persona non grata, and formally expelled from Washington.”

She also tweeted, “I said it before, and I will say it again. #Khashoggi’s killers messed with the wrong paper (@WashingtonPost)

“And in me, the wrong editor.”

Attiah had vowed to keep the case in the public eye.

In response to a question, Attiah also wrote, “Here are a few names of people who Jamal #khashoggi mentioned in his columns that are sitting in Saudi prisons unjustly:

“Loujain Hathloul.

“Essam Al Zamel. (@essamz)

“Aziza Yousef.

“Saleh al-Shehi.”

Trump ‘Played’ Media on ‘Caravan’

Coverage Falls as President Moves On

.
“In the past few days, many members of the media have pointed out a sudden change in President Trump’s priorities,” Brian Stelter wrote for CNN on Thursday. “In the closing week of the midterm campaign, Trump mentioned the migrants traveling through Mexico toward the US southern border more than 60 times. He portrayed the migrants as an imminent threat and parroted Fox’s use of the word ‘invasion’ to describe the travelers. He pushed to keep the migrants in the news.

“And yet Trump has only used the word ‘caravan’ once since election day, and it was almost in passing, at a news conference the next day. The migrants are still heading north, but you’d barely know it from Trump’s behavior.

“So here’s the thing: Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, predicted this would happen.

” ‘Right before the election, they try to scare the heck out of you,’ Obama said in a blunt critique of the GOP on October 26. ‘And then the election comes, and suddenly the problem is magically gone. Everything’s great. “I’m sorry, what did we say?” ‘

“This, Obama said, ‘is what happened in 2010, this is what happened in 2012, what happened in 2014, just over and over and over again, they’ll just run these same stories and then after the election, suddenly they’re not interested anymore.’

“He brought up three past examples and used each one to criticize Republican messaging techniques.

  • “In the run-up to the 2010 midterms, the recent passage of Obamacare fueled rage on the right. ‘They said government bureaucrats are going to kill your granny. Remember? “Death panels.” Then right after the election, what death panels? Didn’t exist,” Obama said.
  • “In the run-up to the 2014 midterms, the Ebola outbreak was a big story. At the time, then-businessman Trump argued that Ebola patients should not be allowed to enter the US for treatment. Obama described the faux panic this way: ‘Ebola’s going to kill everybody. Gotta keep everybody out.’
  • “In 2016, he said, ‘it was Hillary’s emails. Terrible! That’s all you could read about, emails, emails, oh man, threatening our national security, irresponsible. They didn’t actually care about it because if they did, they’d be up in arms right now about the fact that the Chinese are listening to our President’s unsecured iPhone, which he leaves in his golf cart! What happened? What happened? You know, this was a national security threat. You remember?’

“So that was Obama’s argument: Republicans shamelessly hype certain stories for electoral advantage.

“His comments doubled as a critique of the media, too. And they’re interesting to re-read in light of the midterm results.

“The ‘caravan’ received daily news coverage when the migrants set out on foot in Honduras in October. Some journalists, in retrospect, thought the amount of attention was excessive, given how far away the migrants were from the US border. Some news outlets produced excellent and nuanced stories about the travelers and their reasons for fleeing Central America. But other outlets, particularly on the pro-Trump side, portrayed the travelers as a threat and sowed conspiracy theories about who was behind the journey.

“As election day neared, many news outlets pulled back on the daily coverage. But Trump talked about the topic practically every day, either on Twitter, in interviews or at rallies. Many of his media boosters on Fox News did the same. So the topic hung in the air. . . .”


(Credit: YouTube)

Comcast to Add Two More Black Channels

“Comcast has selected TV One’s Cleo TV and Afrotainment’s Afro as the latest independent channels to receive broad distribution on its cable systems to fulfill commitments made as part of Comcast’s 2011 acquisition of NBCUniversal,” Cynthia Littleton reported Thursday for Variety.

“Cleo TV (video) will target young women of color. Afro (video) is described as a ‘polycultural black network’ featuring movies, acquired and original TV series and other programming representing black cultures in the U.S. and beyond. Both channels will debut on Comcast’s platform in January.

“ ‘The offerings from both Afro and Cleo TV serve as an excellent complement to the growing catalog of programming choices we offer about global black communities,’ said Keesha Boyd, executive director, of multicultural products at Comcast Cable.

” ‘We remain committed to delivering a wide array of programming by partnering with independent networks, such as the two we’re announcing today, to better serve our increasingly diverse customer base.’

“When it first acquired a majority stake in NBCU, Comcast set an agreement with the Justice Department to launch 10 new independently owned channels across its cable systems by 2019. Eight of those channels were to be owned or operated primarily by persons of color. To date, the cable giant has launched six such channels, including Sean Combs’ Revolt and Robert Rodriguez’s El Rey Network. Cleo TV and Afro will bring the tally to eight. . . .”

Harvard Crimson Gets First Black Female President

Kristine Guillaume
Kristine Guillaume

“She was trying to focus on reading ‘Chokehold: Policing Black Men’ Sunday night,” Jeneé Osterheldt wrote Thursday for the Boston Globe.

“Rihanna’s voice sang from the speakers, ‘All this work, no vacation.’ But no song or book could keep Kristine E. Guillaume from checking her phone for a call that could make Harvard history.

“At 7:40 p.m., the phone rang, and she got the news: Guillaume had been voted the next president of the Harvard Crimson, leader of the student paper’s 146th Guard, and the first black woman to head the organization. . . .

Osterheldt also wrote, “”It’s been a few days, and she’s still taking it all in. Come January, the 20-year-old junior will become the third black president to lead the Crimson, America’s oldest published daily college paper, founded in 1873.

“ ‘It does make me feel weird that we’re still doing firsts,’ she said. ‘It’s about time. I’m nervous but excited. It’s a huge responsibility, and honestly it doesn’t feel real that I actually have the opportunity.’ . . .”

Wall St. Journal Seeks New ‘Tone’ on Diversity

Matt Murray became editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal in June, replacing Gerard Baker, who had been editor for five-and-a-half years. He said he and his managing editor, Karen Pensiero, are “improving the pipeline of the people coming in, improving our diversity, and helping people here take the next steps in their careers.

“I went to the NABJ this year, and Karen went to the NAHJ. We’re working hard to have a different tone in the newsroom and get the word out,” Chris Roush reported Thursday for Talking Biz News.

Matt Murray
Matt Murray

The acronyms stand for the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

In a Q-and-A with Roush, Murray said he was aware of gender discrimination. “Now, in our six key coverage drivers, half of the leaders in the U.S. are women. And half of our bureau chiefs are women.”

Murray also said, “In recruiting and hiring, one of the problems in the past is that hiring had gotten so decentralized, that the reality was diversity didn’t happen. So we’ve centralized hiring to look across the organization. We do not let our current managers hire managers or promote managers unless they look at diverse candidates.

“And Karen’s team, particularly with Sarah Rabil, who was formerly the deputy in media and marketing, has been very very actively recruiting on campus and diversity organizations such as NABJ. Me going to NABJ was a sign to the newsroom that we have to take this seriously and have to be personally involved.

“I would never claim that we are close to where we want to be, but there is a commitment to create a culture to make it better.

“We had a bureau chief meeting with 110 people from around the world at the end of September, and we all went off site for a couple of days. We hadn’t done that in a decade. We talked three or four times about diversity and about how management views diversity. We also had a panel of younger journalists come in and tell the managers where they think we’re an obstacle to their success. These were rising stars and they gave us a lot of views. They let us have it pretty good. You have to follow up on those things and their concerns. They love the Journal and are proud to be here, and they want to see us make progress and change. . . .”

Memphis police arrest Manuel Duran during a Memphis protest in April. (Credit: Jim Weber/Commercial Appeal)
Memphis police arrest Manuel Duran during protest in April. (Credit: Jim Weber/Commercial Appeal)

Memphis Reporter Gets 2-Week Stay on Deportation

“A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that detained reporter Manuel Duran can have a two-week stay of deportation while it reviews his case,” Daniel Connolly reported Thursday for the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

” ‘The government is directed not to (deport Duran) prior to November 30, 2018. It is so ordered,’ the ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reads in part.

“The appeals court has not yet ruled on the underlying question of whether Duran’s immigration case should be reopened.

“Both an Atlanta immigration court and an immigration appeals board have denied Duran’s efforts to reopen the case and seek asylum, leaving an old deportation order in place.

“Duran is a longtime broadcaster with Spanish-language radio stations in the Memphis area and more recently was running his own online news outlet, Memphis Noticias. In April, he was arrested during a Memphis protest, leading to his transfer to immigration detention and triggering a complex legal fight.

“Duran originally comes from El Salvador. He has said threats related to his journalism in El Salvador prompted him to leave that country. . . .”

Reported Hate Crimes Rise for Third Year

“Reported hate crimes in America rose 17 percent last year, the third consecutive year that such crimes increased, according to newly released FBI data that showed an even larger increase in anti-Semitic attacks,” Devlin Barrett reported Tuesday for the Washington Post.

“Law enforcement agencies reported that 7,175 hate crimes occurred in 2017, up from 6,121 in 2016. That increase was fueled in part by more police departments reporting hate crime data to the FBI, but overall there is still a large number of departments that report no hate crimes to the federal database.

“The sharp increase in hate crimes in 2017 came even as overall violent crime in America fell slightly, by 0.2 percent, after increases in 2015 and 2016 . . .”

Meanwhile, “Hate crimes against Native Americans increased a whopping 63 percent in the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, according to new data released by the FBI,” Acee Agoyo reported Tuesday for indianz.com.

“Law enforcement agencies across the nation reported 251 hate crime incidents against American Indians and Alaska Natives in 2017. That represents a significant jump from the 154 incidents seen as the Barack Obama era came to a close. . . .”

58% in Poll Don’t Want Trump Re-Elected

“A Monmouth University poll out Wednesday found that though the president’s approval rating stands fairly steady at 43 percent, only 37 percent of registered voters want to see him reelected, compared to 58 percent of voters who want someone new in the Oval Office come January 2021,” Caitlin Oprysko reported for Politico.

“Those who don’t want to see Trump reelected predictably varies by party, but 16 percent — not an insignificant number — of Republicans say Trump should be a one-term leader, according to the poll, while 92 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of independents said the same. . . .”

Short Takes

Stan Lee (Photo illustration by the Daily Beast)
Stan Lee (Photo illustration by the Daily Beast)
Untitled. Namibia, 2013. (Credit: Thabiso Sekgala courtesy of the McKinley Collection)
Untitled. Namibia, 2013. (Credit: Thabiso Sekgala courtesy of the McKinley Collection)

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