CNN’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta faced scrutiny for interrupting Dr. Deborah Birx during Friday’s coronavirus briefing.
Dr. Birx was criticizing the World Health Organization’s initial handling of the coronavirus outbreak, when Acosta decided to step in.
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“I will remind you that on February 3rd, the head of the WHO said there was never any reason to do a travel ban,” Dr. Birx said. “You know, it wasn’t until January 14th that we knew that there was human-to-human transmission.”
Acosta then rudely cut in, “Remember, the president was saying this was going to go away. It’s April. Mr. President, you said it was going to go away in April.”
Trump fired back, “I didn’t set a date.” See Below
WATCH:
Jim Acosta interrupts Dr. Birx as she criticizes the WHO’s response to coronavirus
pic.twitter.com/PAcqG9sW4K— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 3, 2020
After seeing the drama unfold, Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley slammed Acosta over his interruption.
“Jim Acosta’s interruption of Dr. Birx is an example of how CNN’s echo-journalism model is destroying the media’s credibility,” Turley said. “Every question from Acosta is an effort to score points rather than elicit information. It is a press pandemic that continues to rage without relief.”
Turley then tied Acosta’s performance at Friday’s briefing to what ABC journalist Jonathan Karl said about Acosta in his new book.
“Other reporters today asked appropriately hard-hitting questions of Trump,” Turley said For example, the assertion that the ‘shelves were empty’ seems clearly overstated and wrong. As Jonathan Karl recently noted in his book, Acosta’s questions seem more statements of the political opposition.” See Below
Jonathan Turley’s Official Tweets
Jim Acosta’s interruption of Dr. Birx is an example of how CNN’s echo-journalism model is destroying the media’s credibility. Every question from Acosta is an effort to score points rather than elicit information. It is a press pandemic that continues to rage without relief.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 3, 2020
Other reporters today asked appropriately hard-hitting questions of Trump. For example, the assertion that the “shelves were empty” seems clearly overstated and wrong. As Jonathan Karl recently noted in his book, Acosta’s questions seem more statements of the political opposition
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 3, 2020
