Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta believes President Donald Trump has “cracked the code” on how to "hurt the press."
Acosta’s comment came in response to a discussion on Wednesday with Don Lemon about the resignation this week of Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” who claimed it became clear to him in recent months that he “would not be allowed to run the show a I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right” for the program and its audience.
CNN’s Jake Tapper said Owens was pushed out.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper admonished Shari Redstone, the owner of media giant Paramount, after a top producer at CBS’s “60 Minutes” resigned this week among speculation its parent company will soon settle a lawsuit brought by President Trump. […]
Owens was alluding to interference from Paramount in the CBS News’s coverage as the Hollywood giant works to reach a settlement with Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris during her 2024 presidential bid. Trump sued over the program last year, arguing the segment was intentionally edited to cast his Democratic rival in a positive light.
“And it seems as if Shari Redstone is likely to bend the knee to Trump and settle this allegedly frivolous lawsuit,” Tapper said, noting Paramount is currently trying to push through a merger with fellow Hollywood giant Skydance, which will need approval from Trump’s government regulators to go through.
“And that is the context of Shari Redstone’s likely bending of the knee. Hope the money’s worth it, Shari,” Tapper quipped in comments first highlighted by Mediaite. (The Hill)
Acosta and Lemon added to the criticism.
DON LEMON: Corporations don’t want their business in Washington interfered with or blocked, right? There are mergers, there are acquisitions and all of those things are consolidations and you know, whatever takeover of companies, they don’t want that.
And so they are cozying up to Donald Trump. They are bending the knee. And now CBS may have to settle with Donald Trump if they want this Paramount merger to go through because Donald Trump is suing them for a lot of money.
And that is not this that– for me. You know, for the freedom of speech crowd, that is just total hypocrisy.
JIM ACOSTA: It seems to me Trump has figured out how– he’s figured out how to crack the code of, of how to hurt the press, how to hit the media where it hurts.
And in part, because these companies should never have been allowed to take over these news organizations to begin with and have the kind of sway and influence over these new organizations that they’ve had over the last, what, 20 or 30 years that, Don, you and I have been in this business.
We’ve seen newsrooms get smaller, we’ve seen bureaus get shut down, we’ve see talented journalists, photographers, producers, writers and so on get laid off, all in the name of corporate downsizing and saving a little money here and investor confidence over there and shareholders value, blah, blah blah.
And it just has gotten journalists further and further away from being able to do their damn jobs. And it’s now affected 60 Minutes.
DON LEMON: It’s 60 Minutes, like one of the most trusted, you know, news magazines, if not, it is the most trusted news magazine program, I believe on the air today, uh, in anywhere in, um, in the, in, the world. (Transcript via Mediaite)
Join the conversation as a VIP Member