CNN reporter Jim Acosta will receive a “Truth to Power” award from the New York Press Club for “his unwavering commitment to fact and journalism,” the organization said in a press release Friday.
“We are proud to honor a man such as Jim Acosta, who has proven himself throughout his storied, decades-long career to be a journalist of the utmost integrity,” Press Club President Jane Tillman Irving wrote in the release.
Acosta, who has worked at CNN since 2007, serves as the organization’s chief White House correspondent and has repeatedly sparred with the president and administration officials.
The White House pulled Acosta’s press credentials in November after a heated exchange with President Trump during a news conference in which a White House intern attempted to wrestle a microphone away from the reporter.
“CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN,” Trump told Acosta during the Nov. 7 confrontation. “The way you treat Sarah Huckabee is horrible…You shouldn’t treat people that way.”
President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern…
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) November 8, 2018
The White House claimed it revoked Acosta’s press pass due to his treatment of the intern, while CNN maintained that it was revoked in “retaliation” for Acosta’s “challenging questions.”
Tonight the White House revoked @Acosta’s press pass. CNN’s response to @PressSec and @realDonaldTrump: pic.twitter.com/EY2iFLvP3P
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) November 8, 2018
A federal judge later ordered the administration to reinstate Acosta’s press credentials.
Since the incident, Acosta has accused Trump of being “hazardous to the truth,” accused a fellow reporter from a conservative outlet of asking Trump “softball” questions, and has revealed he is writing a book on his experience covering Trump.
