Apparently, after a court issued an injunction that strong-armed the White House into returning Jim Acosta’s hard press pass to him last week, the Trump administration wants to strip CNN’s chief White House correspondent of his press pass once again.
Let me offer a word of unsolicited advice to the White House: just stop. This is not the hill to die on.
Yes, Acosta is a performance artist masquerading as a journalist. He does a disservice to his actually competent, news-gathering colleagues at CNN. He wants nothing more than attention, and how convenient is it of the White House to provide him a pre-packaged victimhood narrative to paint himself as a martyr for the First Amendment.
[Opinion: Press shouldn’t celebrate too soon on Jim Acosta lawsuit]
But the truth is that the White House dug itself into a hole here, and they need to stop digging. For one thing, press secretary Sarah Sanders idiotically attributed the suspension of Acosta’s press pass on the absurd notion that he assaulted a White House intern when he clearly did not. Then they tried to flip the script when CNN filed a lawsuit against them, saying that the White House simply has full discretion to revoke any pass they want. The court ultimately found that without clear due process and a standard set of rules qualifying press pass withdrawal, the White House can’t just take back a press pass once it’s already been issued.
Obviously reporters don’t have an unfettered right to White House access. No reasonable person would want the Daily Stormer on White House grounds, or even an obviously sham reporter to receive one just to posture as a resistance member during press briefings.
But once the White House grants a press pass to reporters, they shouldn’t take it away for no reason. Nothing fuels the Left’s narrative that Trump is silencing the free press more than this mostly meaningless but widely covered gesture. Trump and Sanders can also merely refuse to take questions from Acosta, too. They can also take suggestion from the court and establish a set standard of rules and apply them consistently.
But to keep up this inane war with CNN is not only questionable as a matter of principle, but also terrible strategy, playing right into the hands of the White House’s most opportunistic critics.
