CNN anchor Jim Acosta is reportedly getting a demotion now that President Donald Trump is in office.
Acosta achieved notoriety during Trump’s first term when he served as a White House correspondent. He was known for his antics during press briefings, repeatedly drawing attention to himself by clashing with the president.
Now, under Trump’s second term, several media outlets have seemingly been trying to be more balanced in their coverage of the administration, and shuffling Acosta around might be part of this initiative, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Acosta, a fixture on the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network since 2007, is mulling a proposal from CNN Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Thompson to give up his daytime shift and move to Los Angeles to helm a two-hour nightly newscast that starts at midnight Eastern time.
The new time slot would mean Acosta would broadcast between 9 and 11 p.m. PT, which are primetime hours for those on the West Coast. However, about 80 percent of CNN’s audience is located in the Eastern and Central time zones
The reporter has not made a decision about the move. But if he does not take the new gig, he may end up leaving the network.
A source at CNN told Fox News Digital that the rumors are true and that Acosta is “getting hosed.”
The individual said Acosta “could handle any slot on the network” but that “The midnight thing is shocking.”
Acosta frequently used his position as White House correspondent to grandstand on several occasions while sparring with Trump. In one instance, he refused to give up his microphone to an aide during a 2018 exchange with the president.
The Trump White House rescinded Acosta’s press credentials as a result, However, his access was restored after a court ruling against the administration.
Most recently, Acosta had a dust-up with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) over Trump’s decision to pardon those convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. He accused the lawmaker of trying to “spin a tale and pull the wool over people’s eyes.”
Burchett responded:
And that's why more people are watching the Cartoon Network, Spongebob reruns right now. Jim, look, I left the White House during a riot. My life was threatened. My life has been threatened within the last few weeks, yet there's no coverage of that. And you all continue this, this narrative of attacking Trump. You just can't stand the fact that he won and that America spoke and that your view is very diminished.
OUCH. @TimBurchett absolutely bodies CNN's Jim Acosta as the network losing to Spongebob reruns....
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 22, 2025
Acosta: "This is this is not Fox, congressman. You can't just spin a tale and pull the wool over people's eyes. This is CNN. This is the news. We are asking you to come on and… pic.twitter.com/AUfWPwPH49
But, with new leadership in charge of the network, it appears Acosta won’t get the same opportunities to make more of a name for himself using his antagonistic relationship with the president.
As the Los Angeles Times intimated, this could signal a shift in the media landscape. During Trump’s first term, the press became little more than a propaganda arm against President Trump, abandoning objective journalism in favor of outright activism on behalf of the Democratic Party. Acosta played an integral role in this paradigm.
Perhaps media outlets have at least partially learned their lesson as trust in the press plummeted considerably over the past decade, largely due to its clear bias in favor of the left.
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