Jim Acosta's Banishment: A Step Forward For Civility in America

On Wednesday, November 7th at the day after the election Presidential Press Conference, Jim Acosta got into it with President Trump, as he is normally wont to do.  This time, however, he went too far and refused to give up the microphone when the intern came to collect it.  The Trump administration has put up with Acosta’s antics pretty well when he’s taking shots at President Trump or Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, but it’s a very unprofessional thing to try to fight the intern for the mic.  And as a result, the Trump administration suspended Acosta’s credentials for entering the White House.
The screeching was immediate from the usual suspects.  Rather than discuss Acosta’s behavior towards a young woman who was merely trying to do her job, they objected to the language used in the press release.  Acosta immediately claimed it was a lie to say that he had “laid hands on” the young woman, kicking off a firestorm of media criticism and wailing about Trump threatening the free press.  And they wonder why we think they are Fake News.

Let’s start with the whole thing about Acosta “laying hands on” the intern.  He clearly made physical contact with her as she was trying to retrieve the microphone to move on to the next reporter.  Would he have preferred the White House press release to say, “Acosta gets into slap fight with young woman over microphone”?  This is just stupid.
Second, Acosta has violated the first rule of being a journalist, and he has become the story on more than one occasion.  And CNN’s open hostility towards the Trump administration is well documented.
The lack of civility in this country begins with the lack of journalistic standards and integrity that the media has shown for years.  It’s one standard for the Democrat, and another for the Republican.  I think it’s fair to say that if somebody from Fox News had tried to fight the intern for the microphone at an Obama press conference, it would not have gone over well at all.  Nor should it.  There’s a certain level of decorum at these events that is necessary for them to function and happen.
Donald Trump is not the threat to the free press.  The press itself is.