In the past few months, journalists have been threatened with bombs sent to their doorstep of their office. They’ve been shot in the newsroom. But never before have they been stripped of White House press credentials for asking difficult questions.
President Donald Trump’s history of conflict with CNN journalist Jim Acosta reached an unprecedented peak when he suspended Acosta’s access to the White House after Acosta asked him a question regarding the migrant caravan.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced in a tweet that Acosta’s credentials were removed after “placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern,” painting a sad picture of an innocent intern who was assaulted at the hands of an aggressive journalist.
But a video broadcast on Fox News shows that while Acosta’s arm hit the intern’s arm briefly while she attempted to remove his mic, there was no real physical altercation.
Furthermore, the video tweeted by Sanders, which originated from Paul Joseph Watson, editor of the far-right conspiracy site Infowars, does not match the original footage. Fact-checkers are arguing that the movement of Acosta’s arm in the edited video has been sped up to create the illusion of aggression.
The edited version removes Acosta’s verbal response to the woman when he touches her arm — “Pardon me, ma’am” — a statement indicating the contact was accidental.
The White House is presenting a doctored version of reality in official capacity. They’re sending out a video that someone took into an editing program and tampered with, intending to sway the minds of the general public.
And implying that Acosta was attempting to assault the intern, the administration is using violence against women to its advantage, after consistently invalidating female victims of physical and sexual assault. The Trump administration can’t turn around now and pretend it cares about women.
Officials needed a reason to justify barring Acosta from entering the White House, and admitting that the president is no longer willing to face interrogation from someone who asks hard-hitting questions was not an option. So instead, they’re taking an instance of a reporter accidentally brushing arms with a woman and finding a way to say it warrants violating the basis of our constitution. Turning to accusations of assault is hypocritical and invalidating to people who really suffer with the life-long consequences of that experience.
And for the White House to pretend to take assault seriously when it’s for their personal benefit — and make every attempt to cover it up when it’s to their detriment, like in the case of allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — reveals how this really isn’t about protecting their staff. And it’s certainly not about guarding against the spread of false information.
Acosta makes Trump feel insecure because he takes the spotlight. It’s also easy for Trump to denigrate female reporters, and the chance to combat a male figure like Acosta presents a different challenge.
At a press conference two weeks ago, Trump accused Yamiche Alcindor, a White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, of asking him a “racist question” when she asked if his rhetoric has emboldened white nationalists. Accusing a black reporter of being racist is, in a way, similar to claiming Acosta’s press pass was suspended because he placed his hands on a woman — it’s a deflection of blame for things that Trump himself has been denounced for. It’s a quick way to flip a situation, but it’s not convincing.
We’ve known for a while that the words of White House officials can’t be trusted. Now we know that photographic and video-graphic content can be faked too. This is what autocratic leaders do: spread propaganda and manipulate the truth.
