As you know, some in the crowd at a Trump rally in Tampa chanting “CNN sucks” while Jim Acosta reported from the scene has shaken the MSM to its core. However, former George W. Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer offered this piece of advice to the triggered media:
To reporters (@Acosta) complaining re your treatment at Trump rallies: Now u know what it’s like for conservatives invited 2speak at college campuses. (if the invite isn’t rescinded). I wish you were treated differently. But maybe u should cover college protests differently now.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) August 2, 2018
Some journos were quick to respond:
Two wrongs don’t make it right
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) August 2, 2018
. @AriFleischer, the @SarahHuckabee of his day, was a notorious cheerleader for US-UK invasion of Iraq – an invasion sold to the public on fake news https://t.co/J6w940NYcM
— AndrewBuncombe (@AndrewBuncombe) August 2, 2018
We are not partisans espousing a view. We are gathering information for the public.
— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) August 2, 2018
That’s sure not the way the MSM is viewed by a lot of people.
Fleischer had this exchange with Leonnig:
So it’s ok when conservatives get harassed and shouted down? Because only reporters deserve respect. Got it. https://t.co/oaeoyZXtAL
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) August 2, 2018
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@CarolLeonnig she is saying that reporters are there to observe and gather facts, not espouse a view that some like/others don’t. I didn’t take carol to be offering an opinion on righteousness of yelling obscenities or shouting people down.
— Del Quentin Wilber (@DelWilber) August 2, 2018
Yes Del… And @AriFleischer I have great respect for what you do and have done. But it is different than journalism. I'm not a supporter of heckling anyone…but I do have some fear for the democracy if journalists are taunted and now viewed as partisan.
— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) August 2, 2018
Then you and I are on the same page. I don’t like howling mobs, regardless of who they are. Just as I don’t like any effort to physically intimidate the press, I don’t like it to happen to the few conservative speakers who get invited to campuses.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) August 2, 2018
My point is re how things get covered. Now that a mob is after the press, the press should see things differently when another group is targeted. Often, mobs on campus are just as physically intimidating, if not more so. I hope this opens up eyes to how others are impacted.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) August 2, 2018
Final point: It’s not helpful for POTUS to encourage it and I have routinely criticized his behavior. But it’s worse when mobs form organically. When Condi Rice can’t give a graduation address because the school knows a mob will form, that’s a problem.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) August 2, 2018
Jim Acosta hasn’t yet commented on Fleischer’s tweets, but he did retweet this:
There’s another Trump rally tonight, this time in Pennsylvania. Will Jim Acosta be there, and if so will CNN make the story about him? Some questions answer themselves.
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