Sarah Huckabee Sanders says if reporters like Jim Acosta ‘can’t be adults,’ networks should send other journalists

Make sure to let us know what you think... we now have comments turned ON below the article!

Following the revocation of CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s “hard pass” into the White House after contentious and unacceptable behavior at a news conference, CNN filed suit against the Trump administration claiming violations of the First and Fifth Amendments. A federal judge heard arguments in the case Friday and, though he didn’t address the First Amendment claim, he did rule that the White House needed a sort of “due process” in place to revoke press credentials, and ordered Acosta’s “hard pass” restored.

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders discussed the ruling and in an appearance on Fox News on Friday night, where she said that if reporters like Acosta “can’t be adults,” networks like CNN should send other representatives.

Speaking with her father — former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who was guest hosting for Sean Hannity — Sanders seemed to suggest that Acosta had been behaving like a spoiled child as she explained that the basic minimum standard for reporters going forward should be to act like an adult.

A matter of due process

Asked about what sort of new protocol would be implemented for reporters following the judge’s ruling, Sanders first laid out the basic framework of what the White House expected of members of the media.

“We support a free press, but freedom of the press doesn’t mean freedom to be disruptive, freedom to be rude, freedom to interrupt and impede the ability of the colleagues of the disruptive reporter from actually being able to do their jobs, as well as White House staff being able to do theirs,” Sanders said.

The press secretary revealed that a letter had been sent to CNN that laid out the “missteps” made by Acosta at the post-midterms news conference. She also said that the judge’s ruling actually confirmed that the White House has the right to get rid of disruptive journalists, provided they are afforded due process.

“The judge, I think, was actually very clear that the White House has the ability to say, ‘You can’t come in,'” Sanders said. “Freedom of the press doesn’t mean freedom into the White House… He said there has to be due process, so that’s what we are doing and we’ll see what happens from there.”

If reporters “can’t be adults,” send someone who can

After some discussion about the total number of “hard passes” held by CNN reporters — at least 50, among the most of any other news network — and how it was “laughable” for CNN to try and claim its freedom of the press had been violated, particularly in light of the president’s incredible amount of accessibility to the media, the conversation then turned to opening up future White House briefings to other journalists and outlets not typically seen in the White House press pool.

The interview circled back to when the new protocol for reporters might be implemented — most likely following the Thanksgiving holiday break.

“But I think there are some standard practices,” Sanders said. “The very basic minimum is that if certain reporters — like Jim Acosta — can’t be adults, then CNN needs to send somebody in there who can be.”

Asked about if Acosta’s microphone-hogging behavior had irritated other White House reporters, Sanders replied with a chuckle: “I’m not [going to] speak for any of the other reporters, I’ll leave that to them. But certainly, privately, a number of them have expressed their displeasure with the fact of his grandstanding and the position that he often puts a lot of them in, and it certainly is not something they want to celebrate nor defend.”

[show_poll poll_id=1051]

Jim Acosta has shown on numerous occasions that he struggles with behaving like an adult while at the White House, making opinionated statements instead of asking questions, hogging the microphone at the expense of other reporters, and throwing temper tantrums when he doesn’t get his way.

The White House absolutely should put some ground rules in place that will either compel reporters to behave themselves or be processed out of the press pool so someone else who will behave themselves can be given a chance to cover the White House from the inside.

851 Responses

  1. 273356 873823I discovered your blog internet web site on bing and appearance several of your early posts. Preserve up the very excellent operate. I just now additional the RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Seeking toward reading far much more on your part down the road! 110106

  2. hello there and thank you for your info – I’ve certainly picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical points using this site, since I experienced to reload the site many times previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your hosting is OK? Not that I am complaining, but sluggish loading instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and can damage your quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for a lot more of your respective fascinating content. Make sure you update this again very soon..

  3. hello there and thank you for your info – I have certainly picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical issues using this web site, as I experienced to reload the website lots of times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your web host is OK? Not that I am complaining, but slow loading instances times will sometimes affect your placement in google and could damage your high-quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for much more of your respective exciting content. Make sure you update this again very soon..

  4. Thanks for expressing your ideas. I might also like to state that video games have been ever before evolving. Technology advances and innovations have aided create practical and fun games. Most of these entertainment games were not actually sensible when the real concept was first of all being tried. Just like other styles of technology, video games also have had to progress as a result of many many years. This itself is testimony on the fast progression of video games.

  5. Hey there I am so thrilled I found your site, I really found you by mistake, while I was researching on Bing for something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thanks for a incredible post and a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design), I dont have time to look over it all at the moment but I have saved it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the great work.

  6. Thanks for your personal marvelous posting! I seriously enjoyed reading it, you are a great author.I will ensure that I bookmark your blog and will eventually come back from now on. I want to encourage you to continue your great work, have a nice morning!

  7. Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is a very well written article. I’ll make sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful info. Thanks for the post. I’ll certainly comeback.

  8. Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am impressed! Very helpful information specifically the last part 🙂 I care for such information much. I was looking for this particular information for a very long time. Thank you and best of luck.

  9. Hello there! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I truly enjoy reading through your blog posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same topics? Thanks for your time!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Popular