Jim Acosta, senior White House correspondent for CNN, has acquired a certain renown lately for his habitual, and carefully staged, verbal confrontations in the White House press room with President Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer. You could make the argument that both Spicer and Acosta, in their respective positions, are probably in over their heads, and deserve one another. But while I’m content to refrain from making personnel recommendations to Spicer’s boss, there is an underlying fallacy in Acosta’s public posturing—generally supported by colleagues in the media—that ought to be clarified.

And that is this: While it may be annoying that Sean Spicer tends to spin rather than respond to inquiries, or turn off the TV cameras when a public briefing begins, or even that President Trump manifestly dislikes the political press corps, there is nothing especially new about any of this​—​and the media privileges and access that Acosta and his colleagues value are very recent in the history of press-presidential relations.