Former press secretaries Fleischer, McCurry agree on @Acosta behavior: 'I wish he would stop' thehill.com/opinion/white-…
when it comes to White House press briefings, the unwritten rule has always been this: One question, perhaps one follow-up before the president or press secretary moves on to another of the dozens of reporters in the room.
The reasons: Time is finite. Some reporters in the back of the room often aren't afforded a question at all. And, most importantly, a presidential press briefing shouldn't perpetually center around one reporter.
Yet, for nearly two years, it almost always does center around one: CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta.
By now, many of you are aware of Acosta's modus operandi: Don't initially ask a question but, instead, share a perspective, a position, and then proceed to debate the @PressSec or president. Only after that pointless exercise, done solely for theatrics, does he ask a question.
Other reporters in the briefing room or in the White House East Room, where President Trump held his last press conference on Nov. 7, do not engage in this behavior. But Acosta does.
And after the press briefing is over, the main topic of conversation is almost never anything having to do with policy or of interest to the public but, instead, highlights/lowlights of Acosta trading volleys with the press secretary or the president.
The hot mess of the last two years that is the relationship between Acosta, 47, and the White House came to a crescendo when Acosta refused to yield the floor or the microphone used by reporters to ask questions.
This, despite the CNN reporter eventually asking four questions while the average number asked that day was less than two each (68 questions from 35 reporters).
Mike McCurry, who served as press secretary under President Clinton, decided in 1995 to open daily presidential press briefings to television cameras. McCurry tells The Hill that it is a decision he now regrets, given the grandstanding that occurs on a regular basis.
"The mistake I made was to allow live broadcasts of the daily press briefing," he said. "It's a ‘briefing,' not a live news event. Reporters should gather the information, use it as they see fit in their reports, but check the info against other sources with knowledge and info."
"I should have said that the briefing was available for broadcast but embargoed until it was over," he said. “… I regret not imposing that rule, to this very day."
Ari Fleischer, who served in the same capacity under President George W. Bush, echoed McCurry sentiment while slamming Acosta for abusing his privilege as a White House correspondent.
"I’ve always seen the briefing room as an intensely and incredibly challenging place where no one should go into if their skin isn’t thick and they don’t give the other party a lot of latitude," said Fleischer, who once served as a CNN contributor and was signed by Fox in 2017.
"But Jim @Acosta takes the latitude and busts it wide open, and damages himself and the rest of the press corps because he goes too far."
“Never in my time at the White House was there ever a reporter who acts like Jim Acosta does, by becoming such an editorialist in the room."
McCurry agreed with Fleischer about Acosta: "I think he, like many in the press, performs for the cameras and for his executive producers. I wish that would stop."
McCurry summed up matters in a pithy, precise manner when asked how he thinks all of this ends, long after the court has its say: "With the election of the next president."
