Topic: Media Research Center
Given the revelations of a man who ranted about "fake news" and threatened to kill (which it just can't seem to get worked up enough about to criticize), an Jan. 18 Media Research Center post by Kristine Marsh seems even more harsher in hindsight.
In it, Marsh mocks journalists -- including, ironically, CNN's Jim Acosta, as "crazy" for being concerned about his safety and seems to suggest Acosta deserves anything that might be coming to him for being such a purportedly biased reporter (bolding is hers):
As if their biased outbursts on CNN weren’t enough, chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta and political analyst April Ryan got the chance to unleash more of their rage at President Trump, in a friendly event hosted by the Newseum in Washington D.C., January 17, called “Journalism in the Trump Era.”
The left-wing Committee to Protect Journalists also sponsored the event, and set the tone for the anti-Trump ranting to come, declaring that it was “abundantly clear” that President Trump “[was] doing serious damage to the U.S. standing globally, and embolden[ing] autocrats around the world.”
After that insane claim, Acosta and Ryan tried to keep the crazy flowing, while answering questions about how dangerous Trump was to freedom and democracy.
The Newseum’s Gene Policinski moderated the panel, and first asked if anyone had ever felt threatened while doing their job.
Acosta answered first, automatically going to the most extreme, saying he “absolutely receives death threats,” as do his other colleagues at CNN. Sighing heavily, Ryan agreed, gushing:
It’s very real for some of us...For me it’s real. I’ve been getting death threats just for asking a question. A logical question...the FBI is on speed dial, so is the Secret Service and local police department.Acosta added that he read a book recently whose cover art showed a t-shirt with a journalist, a rope, and a tree, reading, “Some assembly required.” Acosta complained the tacky t-shirt was somehow proof that we would soon be seeing dead journalists on the side of the road:
I remember seeing that t-shirt at Trump rallies, during the campaign. We have to get through our minds, that that is un-American. We don’t kill journalists in this country. The moment that that happens, the moment that there’s a dead journalist on the side of the highway, because of the rhetoric coming out of the White House from the President of the United States, is a day that we become something less than the United States of America. Full stop. End of story.
Acosta worried that it would take “an intervening event” to “shake people’s consciousness, to sort of snap them out of this...some folks are under a spell where they think it’s okay to go after us like this, and they’re going to have to get it shocked out of their system,” he ranted.
Yes, Marsh actually claimed that Ryan "gushed" about receiving death threats. That's not how that works.
Marsh then huffed that "Acosta then rebuked his 'friend' John Roberts’ network, saying Fox, by contrast, 'had an agenda, which is to turn people off of the press. It’s determined, it’s purposeful, and it’s bad for our democracy,' ther CNN journalist slammed." Only at the MRC is it a "slam" to point out the indisputable fact that Fox News is biased.
Marsh ended with a final slam at Acosta in order to portray him as a raving lunatic (havaing already claimed he was "ranting" and expressing "rage" in a "tirade"): We’ve seen this behavior before from Acosta. Last year, at another media event held by the Newseum,he declared that it was “un-American” for Trump to attack CNN, while it was perfectly acceptable for him to scream at the president during press conferences."
