President Donald Trump’s administration contends it has “broad discretion” to regulate press access to the White House as it fends off a legal challenge from CNN and other outlets over the revocation of journalist Jim Acosta’s “hard pass.”
In a legal filing ahead of a Wednesday hearing on CNN’s request for a temporary restraining order to restore Acosta’s access, the government argues it “was lawful” to punish Acosta for his behavior during a contentious Trump press conference last week.
The White House’s explanations for why it seized Acosta’s “hard pass,” which grants reporters as-needed access to the 18-acre complex, have shifted over the last week. Acosta has repeatedly clashed with Trump and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in briefings over the last two years.
NEW: Fox News & other news outlets file briefs supporting CNN in lawsuit against Trump administration over Jim Acosta credentials – CBS
— Breaking911 (@breaking9111) November 14, 2018
The Associated Press joined with a group of 12 other news organizations planning to file an amicus brief in the case Wednesday.
“Whether the news of the day concerns national security, the economy, or the environment, reporters covering the White House must remain free to ask questions. It is imperative that independent journalists have access to the President and his activities, and that journalists are not barred for arbitrary reasons,” the law firm Ballard Spahr said in a statement on behalf of the news organizations.
Fox News President Jay Wallace said that Secret Service passes for working White House journalists “should never be weaponized.” Fox News was one of the organizations part of the filing.
Wallace said while Fox News doesn’t condone the “growing antagonistic tone by both the president and the press at recent media avails,” it supports “access and open exchanges for the American people.”
(AP)
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13 Responses
There is no legal requirement for the President to hold press conferences.
Democracy in action
Seriously, why should Acosta get a press card and not me? What makes him more important than me? What makes him better than me? Is money the criteria here – his organization has more money than me? I think an objective test should be required of all reporters who request a press pass every year, and the ones with the highest scores are the only ones to be given a press pass. Clearly the one and only objective body in the world is the chief Rabbinate of Israel, who will give a semicha test to every prospect, and the highest scores win a a press card. Absolutely no political or media bias exists in this test.
That makes more sense than the lunacy of this lawsuit.
I find it hard to believe that Fox News would back CNN over Jim Acosta. The creep is such a boor!
Now all that remains is for yeshiva world news to join fox and condemn the presidents behavior
Trump is going to have to learn that he can’t silence critics like the way his buddies Putin, Kim and Bin Salman do.
Everyone has the right not to let someone into his house. So does the President into his (white) house. He is NOT stopping anyone from talking.
Else, let him run his press conferences from his dining room. No one should have the right to force their way into your home without a court order or warrant!!!
First, the White House is NOT President Trump’s. It belongs to the American people who allow him to live there while he is serving the country’s people as its president. You can make the case that the East Wing residential quarters of the president and his family should be off-limits – for security reasons if nothing else – but the rest of the building belongs to you and me and the rest of us.
Second, Fox is backing the suit for the very sensible reason that next time it could be a Fox reporter clashing with a Democratic president. All idealism aside, it’s what is sometimes called “enlightened self-interest.” If some one individual isn’t safe then nobody else is. The rules have to apply to everybody or eventually they apply to nobody.
It is sad to see that the circle of morons who comment on this site is growing. Now they are on the side of a creep who attacked young WP intern in the WH.
Conservative,
The White House is called “the people’s house” and the president is a public servant
This is what he signed up for
The White House does not belong to the president. It belongs to the people of the United States. The press room is in the public area. The president’s private residence is in the floors above. The people have a right to question their president and government officials.
To the anti-Trumpers:
Acosta has no interest in questioning , he’s just grandstanding , hostile and a boor.
POTUS , you , or I , don’t have to put up with abuse. It’s not as if you guys don’t know it… You just kinda like it, don’t you?… You’re hypocrites, the whole lot of you..
“….The White House does not belong to the president. It belongs to the people of the United States…..”
And as a part owner of the White House, I don’t want to see my president, any president, humiliated in the “public area”.
Throw the bum out, and keep only respectful reporters in my White House.
Fox, under the Murdoch Boys, is starting to lean left.
I wonder how YWN gets so many constitutional experts among its commenters. WH legal team should borrow some of them.