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By Curtis Houck
 In 2017, CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta gave viewers free doctorates in how to become showboaters and throw hissy fits. No matter where it was, Acosta left his mark on the year in media for all the wrong reasons.
Liberal journalists and White House critics view Acosta as an indispensable beacon of reason possessing a needed sense of urgency, but others (including this space) see him as a leading reason for why the media continued to lose credibility in 2017.
Before I go crazy looking at Acosta’s NewsBusters archive, here’s the ten craziest Acosta moments from the past year (presented in chronological order):
1. Acosta Loses It After Trump Calls Out CNN; ‘You Are Attacking Our News Organization’
Nine days before his inauguration, Trump held a press conference at Trump Tower and, while blasting CNN as “fake news” for being one of the news outlets that promoted the salacious Trump dossier, Acosta interjected.
Trump attempted to call on another reporter, but Acosta wouldn’t let up, shouting that he wanted to speak “[s]ince you are attacking our news organization.” Alas, Trump didn’t grant his request. He even chided Acosta for being “rude.”
2. Trump, CNN’s Acosta Throw Down over Fake News, Media Coverage; ‘You’re Undermining’ Us!
The President last held a marathon news conference on February 16 and, needless to say, it was epic. From the moment Acosta began speaking and emphasized that he and CNN“don’t hate you,” one had to know that the mood was set to explode.
The pair tussled over Jeff Zucker, WikiLeaks, anonymous reporting, and more, but Acosta sent the debate into a higher gear when he accused the President of eroding the First Amendment: “Aren't you concerned, sir, that you are undermining the people's faith in the First Amendment, freedom of the press, the press in this country when you call stories you don't like fake news. Why not just say it's a story I don't like?”
Like many of the selections, the full post is worth checking out.
3. Spicer Tells Off Acosta for Defending Liberals, ObamaCare; ‘Get Outside’ and ‘Talk’ to Americans
March 14's White House briefing marked one of many afternoons in which Acosta made himself the star of cable news. On this particular day, the focus centered around ObamaCare. Acosta put on a proverbial Superman cape in an effort to defend ObamaCare, asking then-press secretary Sean Spicer if the President was “okay with that there are going to be millions of people who aren’t going to have coverage.”
As this space wrote at the time, it never reached the level of shouting that other Acosta moments morphed into, but “Acosta showed his naivete while Spicer explained how millions haven’t bought health care despite the individual mandate because the current system is unaffordable.”
4. CNN’s Acosta Rules It’s Un-American to Slam CNN, News Media; Doesn’t Regret Screaming at Trump
Acosta took his charade to an April 12 Newseum event dedicated to the news media and insinuated that it’s un-American to condemn the news media. He also dabbled in fearmongering when he predicated that Trump could end up rendering the news media extinct.
As expected, he not only refused to apologize for causing a scene at briefings and press conferences but doubled down on his behavior as a necessity:
If our news organization is being attacked, my sense is that that cannot go without any kind of response and, you know, really quickly, that night I heard from a news executive from another network who said: “Hey, you did a great job today defending our network.” And I said – I texted back to him, I said: “I was defending all of us because it could be your network tomorrow.”
More than any other moment on this list, this blog is an absolute must-read and can be found here.
5. Acosta Loses It Over No Audio, No Video WH Briefing; ‘Don't Know What World We're Living In’
The summer months featured temporary changes at the White House press briefing with some briefings only being shown audio-only and others without audio or video. In both cases, Acosta voiced his displeasure. The CNN correspondent took to CNN Newsroom on June 19since audio and video were barred and, for lack of a better term, lost his mind.
Here’s a snippet:
That's the White House behind me. The White House and it's just — it's bizarre, I don't know what world we're living in right now, Brooke, where we're standing at the White House, and they bring us into the briefing room here at the White House and they won't answer these questions on camera, or let us record the audio. I don't know why everybody is going along with this. It doesn't makes sense to me, and it just feels like we're sort of slowly but sure by being dragged into a new normal where the President of the United States is allowed to insulate himself from answering hard questions.
6. ‘There’s No Camera On, Jim!’ Showboating CNN’s Acosta Yells at Spicer Over Press Access
A week after Acosta’s meltdown, the Spicer-led briefing was audio-only. Instead of grilling Spicer on the news of the day, Acosta aired his grievances about the briefing’s set-up. When Acosta demanded Spicer answer a question that had been asked by another reporter, Spicer reminded him that “[t]here’s no camera on.”
Acosta was then triggered and repeatedly shouted about the cameras being “off.” Naturally, he took his message to his CNN colleagues after the briefing, complaining that Spicer has refused to formally call on them “for weeks now” to the point that he declared that the White House had “blackballed” CNN.
7. WH’s Miller Destroys Poem-Reading Acosta, CNN; Acosta Argues Immigration Policies Are a ‘Dog-Whistle’
August 2 was quite the day for Acosta as he again made himself the story with a highlight reel that morphed into its own news cycle. The topic was immigration and a briefing featuring White House policy adviser Stephen Miller. The full exchange and transcript can be found here.
Acosta insisted on being a political activist and reciting the poem that was added to the State of Liberty as part of his squabble with Miller. He also insisted to Miller that the White House seems to “trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country.”
Unfortunately, Acosta embarrassed himself and CNN. Miller hit back by telling him that he’s not only “ignorant” on immigration but his statements “reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree” and were “one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said.”
CNN Newsroom triumphantly welcomed him back after the briefing and allowed Acosta to rule that the administration’s immigration policies are a “dog-whistle” to the base and a sign that the executive brace is “infected” with a disdain for Mexicans, Muslims, and the media.
8. Acosta and Friends Lobby WH to Believe ‘This Climate Change Thing’ Caused Harvey, Irma
Hurricane Irma was still wreaking havoc on Florida and its neighboring states when Acosta played the role of climate change activist, all but demanding Homeland Security advisor Tom Bossert consider the likelihood on September 11 that Irma and Hurricane Harvey were caused by climate change and thus the FEMA budget should be boosted.
9. ‘How Is All That Not Collusion?’ Acosta Squabbles with WH’s Sanders on Indictments
Hours after the first indictments were handed down in the Mueller investigation, Acosta wondered to press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on October 30 how these new Russia developments didn’t amount to sufficient proof that the Trump camp colluded with Russia to steal the election from Hillary Clinton.
So, a journalist floated a final conclusion for the probe that’s likely to drag on for months, if not years? Needless to say, it showed that Acosta is anything but neutral.
10. Kaboom! Acosta, Sanders Throw Down in WH Briefing; ‘I’m Not Taking Another Question From You’
Huckabee Sanders cited the latest NewsBusters study from Rich Noyes on the plethora of negative coverage on the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC during a debate with Acosta about media accuracy when, as predicted, he began shouting.
After telling him repeatedly that she was “not finished” and “not done” speaking, Huckabee Sanders eventually moved on to Lifezette’s Jim Stinson by informing the CNN showman that “I’m not taking another question from you.”
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By Curtis Houck
 Yes, we’ve made it to the end of another year and those of us tasked with watching MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews are still sane.
With the departure of Matthews’s beloved Barack Obama from the White House, 2017 was bound to be a tough year for him with the arrival of Donald Trump’s presidency. Matthews didn’t disappoint in providing plenty of content and head-scratching moments to read here at NewsBusters.
Whether it was bidding farewell to the “physically stirring” Barack Obama, suggesting Trump murder son-in-law Jared Kushner like Italy’s Benito Mussolini did, or comparing Russian fake news trolls to the 9/11 hijackers, it was tough narrowing down the list to ten.
Here now, presented in chronological order, are the top ten craziest Matthews moments from 2017.
1. Matthews Worried People Won’t Trust Movie Times in Newspapers Because of Trump
On January 4 and January 5, Matthews was despondent to the point that he worried Trump had rendered the liberal media so untrustworthy that swaths of people would stop believing the movie theater times printed in newspapers.
Here’s his mini-tangent from the January 5 show:
The thing is that I do believe that he’s convincing with 34 — 30 to 40 percent of the country that voted for him and they have to believe it because they’re invested in him. He’s their hope, so when the moon is made of blue cheese, are they going to believe it? If he’s going to say the movie starts at 8:30 when it starts at 7:00, they are going to be mad at him if people still go to the movies[.]
2. Still ‘Thrilled!’ Matthews Looks Back at ‘Physically Stirring’ Obama
The MSNBC pundit ensured that viewers were constantly reminded of his love for Obama and especially in Obama’s last days as President. On January 10, Matthews told guests Eugene Robinson and Megan Murphy that it was so “emotionally and physically stirring” to see Obama elected.
Later in the show, he looked at the camera and thanked Obama upon hearing a clip of him from the 2008 campaign “for having the courage to stand up for this country.”
3. Fearmonger Matthews Worries Trump Will Use Nuke Codes on Inauguration Day
Less than 24 hour before Donald Trump was inaugurated, Matthews engaged in some fearmongering for the ages, suggesting that Trump was so mentally unstable that he could use the nuclear launch codes (thus deploying nuclear warheads) on January 20.
Unless this is some parallel universe, it’s safe to say that these claims proved to be 100 percent false.
4. Trump Inaugural Address Was ‘Hitlerian’
Matthews was one of many MSNBC talking heads who slogged their way through Trump’s presidential inauguration by making one asinine statement after another. The Hardball host’s contributions included the assertion that President Trump’s inaugural address was“Hitlerian” with its “America First” mantra at its core.
“Of course, nothing about human rights, nothing about gender rights and other things you'd hear from a Democrat but I thought it was a strong statement to the people who voted for him,” he added.
5. Trump Could Murder Son-in-Law Kushner Like Mussolini Did
On at least three occasions in 2017, Matthews compared Trump to World War II-era Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and thus son-in-law/senior adviser Jared Kushner should watch his back or else Trump could murder him.
Moments after the President’s inaugural address, Matthews provided a suggestion to Rachel Maddow about how Trump could solve questions about nepotism:
MATTHEWS: [B]ut Mussolini had a great solution to that. He had him executed. So, it’s —
MADDOW: Jesus, Chris!
MATTHEWS: So, if I were Jared, I’d be a little careful.
Four days later, Matthews did it again, but this time it was to the approval of Mother JonesD.C. bureau chief David Corn.
Matthews re-upped this hateful rhetoric on June 29 while speaking with New York Timescolumnist Frank Bruni:
MATTHEWS: So the son-in-law — you know, one good thing Mussolini did was execute his son-in-law. I mean, I’m talking about Ciano
FRANK BRUNI: Let’s be careful here, yeah.
MATTHEWS: That was an extreme measure. But this was — this is a strange situation.
6. Matthews Repeatedly Links Trump Family to Romanovs, Saddam’s Murderous Children
In 2017, two disturbing claims were made by Matthews when he insisted on an umpteen number of occasions that the Trump children are the American version of Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay while the whole family are modern day Romanovs.
Whether it was January, April, April again, June, or October, the comparisons were being spewed on MSNBC airwaves with zero context about the misdeeds committed by the Hussein children and how off-base that is to Trump’s adult children Eric, Don Jr., and Ivanka.
On one occasion, Matthews even joked about how “we know what happened to the Romanovs” as seeming to allude to their brutal murders at the hands of the Bolsheviks. Matthews suffered zero punishment for this outrageous comparison.
7. Trump Compares to Idi Amin, Kim Jong-Un; ‘He Loves the Parades!’
The July 20 Hardball featured Matthews screeching about how much President Trump enjoyed being witness to a parade of American and French soldiers while in Paris on Bastile Day.
Instead of moving on, Matthews rambled about how Trump “loves parades” in the same way that North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un and infamous Uganda dictator Idi Amin did too.
Starving and murdering innocent Americans? Making himself President for life? Nah, sorry, Chris. That’s fake news.
8. Russian-Backed Fake News Trolls = 9/11 Hijackers?
Yes, that caption is correct. Rewinding to September 28, Matthews was schmoozing with liberal media BFF and Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff (Calif.) when the former distastefully argued that Russian-backed internet trolls in 2016 were the al-Qaeda terrorists who hijacked three four airliners on September 11, 2001.
Here’s Matthews:
You know, when they came here to bomb us — hit the World Trade Center back in 2001, do you notice how they came here for flying lessons? And Americans gave them flying lessons down in Florida and the guy said I thought they were from Germany. Come on, a little sophistication about who is coming to get the bombing lessons for controlling an airplane to fly it into the World Trade Centers. And now these guys just casually take Twitter. They exploit the hell out of it. It's free. They exploit Facebook. They pay a few bucks and these numb nuts that give them this authority — they treat these platforms like they are open to anybody.
9. Matthews Equates Gun Rights Advocates to North Vietnamese Fighters
This Matthews moment came on October 4 and a few days following the Las Vegas massacre when the left predictably pushed any and all gun control measures (most of which would have done nothing to stop the attack).
Matthews was among friendly company in USA Today’s Heidi Przybyla and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, so he felt no pushback when he linked Second Amendment advocates to North Vietnamese fighters that stymied the efforts of American troops during the Vietnam War:
You know, we couldn’t win in Vietnam because we were going the stay — they were going to stay there, and we’re going to come home....The people who are for gun control get interested in something for a while, but the gun owners stay with it. They never leave it. They’re the home team, and they’re never going to let people touch their guns.
10. Tax Reform Celebration Was ‘North Korean Parade’ Bowing to ‘Sun King’ Trump
Matthews’s disastrous 2017 ended with a bang thanks to the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law and it left him enraged just days before Christmas.
Going first to the December 20 show, Matthews bemoaned “Trumpkins” holding a “song fest” at the White House equal to “a druid celebration of the winter solstice.” He also noted that Republicans were there “do[ing] their hosannas” and bowing before “Sun King” Donald Trump.
December 21 didn’t see any cooling of the rhetoric on Matthews’s part as he continued to condemn the supposed act of thievery that robbed the poor to feed the rich.
In a tease for a later segment that invoked Ethiopian strongman Haile Selassie, Matthews trashed the Republican celebration as “look[ing] like a North Korean parade.”
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By Geoffrey Dickens
 All this week, NewsBusters is recounting the most obnoxious liberal bias of 2017. Monday, we presented some of the most outrageous examples of journalists fawning over liberal or left-wing icons, and yesterday we showcased some of this year’s nastiest attacks on Republicans or conservatives.
Today, it’s a look at all of the over-the-top attacks on President Donald Trump, who was called a “crazy” “basket case” of a “sociopath” by the likes of CNN’s Don Lemon and the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin.
Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were terrified that “madman” Trump’s tweets were going to get us into a “nuclear showdown.” ABC’s The View co-host Joy Behar wanted him “impeached” before he got us all nuked.
Trump was also labeled “anti-Semitic” by ABC’s Terry Moran and called America’s “first neo-Nazi president” by The New Republic editor Bob Moser. And the press was still fuming over Trump’s charges of “fake news” as CNN’s Brian Stelter and Carl Bernstein compared his administration to dictatorships around the world.
[LANGUAGE WARNING]
TRUMP IS MENTALLY UNSTABLE
Psychoanalyzing “Crazy” “Sociopath” “Basket Case” Trump
“He’s unhinged, it’s embarrassing and I don’t mean for us, the media because he went after us, but for the country. This is who we elected President of the United States....There was no gravitas. There was no sanity....If you watch that speech as an American, you had to be thinking what in the world is going on? This is the person we elected as President of the United States? This petty, this small, a person who who’s supposed to pull the country together?”
— Host Don Lemon reacting to Trump speech in Arizona, on CNN Tonight, August 22.
“[Republican] members publicly, privately are acknowledging that guy is a basket case, that he cannot serve, he cannot lead the party. My regret is they’ve all been so cowardly for so long and did nothing to stop him and it took this long to whisper on background that he was unfit. Where were the folks seven months ago, ten months ago, two years ago?”
— Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, August 22.
“Dangerous” “Psychologically Troubled” Trump an “Embarrassment to America”
“I think people are finally starting to come to grips – as we must come to grips – with the notion that we have a dangerous individual in the Oval Office who is a national security threat, and he needs to be removed from office....He’s unfit, and he needs to be removed.”
— MSNBC political analyst Ron Reagan Jr. on MSNBC’s Hardball, May 22.
“We haven’t had a president this psychologically troubled – I’m trying to use my language real carefully. We haven’t had a president this psychologically troubled in this way since at least Richard Nixon.”
— Disgraced former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, June 1.
“This piece of shit is not just an embarrassment to America and a stain on the presidency. He’s an embarrassment to humankind.”
— June 3 tweet by former CNN host Reza Aslan about Donald Trump’s post-London attack tweet.
“Sociopathic” Trump is “Stain” that Needs Removing, “Unfit to Be Human”
“Donald Trump is a deeply damaged human being. He is a sociopathic, malignant narcissist, and he happens to be the – you know, the electoral system, not the American people, but the Electoral College has sort of vomited this thing up and it landed in the Oval Office and it needs to be removed. It’s a stain. It’s a big glob on the carpet there. It needs to be removed and that means impeachment or the 25th Amendment. This man is a danger to the world.”
— Former MSNBC host Ron Reagan Jr. on MSNBC’s Hardball, October 25.
“He [Donald Trump] was a coward. He didn’t have the spine to stand-up as leader of the United States and I feel that to be shameful. I’m glad Republican are calling him out on it. I’m glad elected leaders in the Republican Party are finally, finally stopping looking the other way and confronting the fact that he’s not only not fit to be president. In my book, his lack of empathy, his lack of leadership, his lack of courage, he’s unfit to be human.”
— Political commentator Ana Navarro, in response to Trump’s Charlottesville, VA speech as aired on CNN Newsroom with John Berman and Poppy Harlow, August 14.
TRUMP IS GOING TO GET ALL OF US KILLED
Impeach Trump Before He Gets Us Nuked
“The thing about Trump is, the things he has said seriously about nuclear weapons is quite frightening. I’ll give you a couple. To Chris Matthews, he asked, ‘Why do we make them, he said, if we wouldn’t use them?’ Ok. The possibility of nuclear war between Japan and North Korea: ‘It would be a terrible thing. If they do, they do.’ Good luck. Enjoy yourselves, folks. He said he was open to nuking Europe because ‘it’s a big place.’...Why doesn’t everybody face it? He needs to be taken out of office. He needs to be impeached. He is a menace. You say Kim Jong Yum-yum is crazy? So is he. So is he. Get real. Come on. He is nuts and we’re in the middle of it!”
— Co-host Joy Behar on ABC’s The View, April 3.
“We are headed towards a nuclear showdown....We heard this months ago, that we are going to have a ground war in Korea. They’ve believed that inside the White House for a very long time. And yet, he [Donald Trump] is completely detached from reality....You have somebody inside the White House that the New York Daily News says is mentally unfit, that people close to him say is mentally unfit, that people close to him during the campaign told me had early stages of dementia.”
— Co-host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, November 30.
Save the World, Delete the Tweets
“If something like that [Trump typo] can stay on Twitter for six hours, what does that say about who controls the information coming out of the White House? And what if somebody hacked into Twitter and posted a message that could have global implications? Saying something like...‘I’m going to launch nuclear weapons’....This kept me up last night! I was up until two in the morning wondering when this tweet was going to go away.”
— Correspondent Katy Tur reacting to Donald Trump accidentally typing “covfefe” in a tweet, as aired on MSNBC Live, May 31.
“We have become desensitized to these tweets and that they are dangerous...It’s not the madman [North Korean dictator Kim Jon Un] with his hand on the button, it’s his, it’s the madman [Donald Trump] with his finger on his Blackberry or whatever iPhone that could tweet.”
— Co-host Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, September 18.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA
Stunned by Trump’s Anti-Semitic “Neo-Nazi” Ways
Anchor George Stephanopoulos: “Students of history will take note of that slogan, America first.”
Correspondent Terry Moran: “It’s a loaded term in American history. Now, he defined it here as total allegiance to the United States of America, and it is something, as Cecilia said, this is why he was sent here by people who want to hear that message of America first. However, it carries with it overtones from the 1930s when an anti-Semitic movement saying, ‘We don’t want to get involved in Europe’s war. It’s the Jews’ fault in Germany!’ Charles Lindbergh led them. It is a term, as he defined it his way, but the words themselves carry very ugly echos in our history.”
— ABC News live coverage of Trump inauguration, January 20.
“If facts still mean anything in America, Trump will also be recognized henceforth for what he is: the chief recruiter and Dear Leader of a gang of domestic terrorists....The president is the most powerful hate-monger in America. He is the imperial wizard of the new white supremacy....To his supporters, and to himself, Donald Trump is the living embodiment of Hitler’s concept of Aryan Herrenvolk (‘Aryan Master Race’). He is our first neo-Nazi president. And until we acknowledge that unthinkable truth, and treat Trump’s presidency as the anti-democratic crisis that it is, he will not be the last.”
— The New Republic Editor-at-Large Bob Moser in August 14 article “‘Donald Trump, Neo-Nazi Recruiter-in-Chief.”
“Donald Trump is a racist. He isn’t just a white supremacist – he’s a flat-out, full racist, and unless your definition of a racist is you hung somebody from a tree, he is a racist.”
— Former New York Times reporter David Cay Johnston about ESPN’s Jemele Hill calling Trump a “white supremacist, as aired on MSNBC’s AM Joy, September 16.
Trump Transforming Democracy Into Something Evil
“We can imagine a future of jackboots crashing through our doors at 2 a.m., trucks in the streets to take people to the internment camps, bright lights and barking dogs – and worse. Does this make me sound hysterical? Maybe. But this is my last chance to be. In its first week, the Trump administration demonstrated its contempt for Mexicans, for Muslims and for Jews. I imagine the true list is longer. Much longer. Should we keep quiet as we watch this? Is this why America was created?...Our long national nightmare may have just begun.”
— Former White House correspondent for U.S. News & World Report Roger Simon in his February 1 farewell Politico column announcing his retirement.
STILL FUMING OVER “FAKE NEWS”
Dictator Trump
“Will President Trump deny reality on a daily basis? Will he make up his own false facts and fake stats? What will the consequences be? Will reporters give up trying to fact check? Is that the goal? To wear us down, to wear us out...Do citizens in dictatorships recognize what’s happening right here right now? Are they looking at the first two days of the Trump administration and saying, ‘Oh, that’s what my leader does?’ What should we learn from them today?”
— Host Brian Stelter on CNN’s Reliable Sources, January 22.
“Trump’s attacks on the American press as ‘enemies of the American people’ are more treacherous than Richard Nixon’s attacks on the press. Nixon’s attacks on the press were largely in private. There’s a history of what ‘enemy of the people,’ that phrase means as used by dictators and authoritarians including Stalin including Hitler....We’ve never seen in an American president such open authoritarian moves and rhetoric. This is a terrible time we’re living in..”
— CNN political analyst and former Washington Post editor Carl Bernstein on CNN’sReliable Sources, February 19.
Trump vs. The First Amendment
“I was out on the campaign trail time and again when he [Donald Trump] referred to the news media as the dishonest news media, the disgusting news media. He called us liars and crooks and thieves and I can’t think of all of the other names that he called us....I think that the President has to understand that he is doing real damage to what we do. He is doing real damage to the First Amendment in this country when he refers to the news media as the enemies of the people.”
— CNN correspondent Jim Acosta at April 12 Newseum event “Trump and the Press.”
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By Nicholas Fondacaro
 After not caring about President Obama’s golf habit for eight years, CNN suddenly finds it imperative for a functioning democracy for them to document every stroke of President Trump’s outings at his courses. During CNN Newsroom on Wednesday, fill-in host Don Lemon and reporter Dan Merica were losing their minds over someone parking a box truck to block a gap in some hedges CNN was using to peep on the President.
The network’s mouth foaming outrage began on Tuesday when political reporter Manu Raju gloated on Twitter that part of Trump’s round of golf was “captured by CNN cameras.” Raju’s description of his colleagues “capturing” video of Trump sounded more like they were trying to film a nature documentary or hunting Bigfoot rather than doing serious reporting. CNN’s escapades in the bushes marked them for widespread ridicule on social media.
Come Wednesday, someone who CNN couldn’t identify parked a white box truck in front of the “breach” in the shrubs, and for CNN the world looked bleak. “So Dan, you’re in West Palm Beach [, Florida], you’re traveling with the President, understand he played another round of golf today. CNN got video of the President playing golf for the last few days. But I understand something different happened today. What was it,” Lemon asked Merica is a hushed and serious tone.
After explaining how CNN’s job was to document the President’s daily activates and complaining about how the White House doesn’t always tell them what he’s doing, Merica whined about the box truck and claimed it was a part of some “larger” issue:
Today, a big white box truck parked in front trying to obscure our shot of President Trump golfing. Now it may seem trivial, but it is important to give video as the President does these things on a daily basis. And goes to something that is larger, the President and the White House have tried to obscure the fact that President Trump golfs on a regular basis.
Merica droned on about how Trump had golfed 87 times since taking office despite criticizing President Obama for golfing a lot. He also reported how CNN pestered “the White House, to the Secret Service, and to the sheriff’s office down here to confirm was this their truck…”
“I believe the word is hypocrisy, Dan, hypocrisy because he criticized the former president so much,” Lemon pompously declared before getting combative with the network’s critics. “And for those who may be criticizing CNN, we have video of every president playing golf, President Bush video of him, President Obama playing golf…”
But Lemon was right, the word was hypocrisy, or more specifically CNN’s hypocrisy. When Obama was gallivanting around to go golfing, CNN didn’t find it noteworthy at all. Even when Obama rushed off to play golf after ISIS released video of journalist James Foley being beheaded, the network wasn’t really aghast. On CNN New Day, Bloomberg reporter and CNN commentator Margaret Talev huffed at criticism saying: “The man wants to go out for a few hours and be left alone.”
Transcript below:
CNN Newsroom
December 27, 2017
2:29:46 PM Eastern
DON LEMON: So Dan, you’re in West Palm Beach [, Florida], you’re traveling with the President, understand he played another round of golf today. CNN got video of the President playing golf for the last few days. But I understand something different happened today. What was it?
DAN MERICA: You know, our job down here is to cover the President to tell our viewers what is he doing on daily basis. Over the last few days, we've gotten video of the President golfing at his nearby golf club here in West Palm Beach. There is a break in the hedges really. The President doesn't really and his staff doesn't tell us when he is golfing. And we have taken to going outside the golf course and filming him as he golfs through the break in hedges near the club.
 Today, a big white box truck parked in front trying to obscure our shot of President Trump golfing. Now it may seem trivial, but it is important to give video as the President does these things on a daily basis. And goes to something that is larger, the President and the White House have tried to obscure the fact that President Trump golfs on a regular basis.
According to our count, he has visited one of his golf courses 87 times as President. This is a man who ran for president, who criticized Barack Obama regularly golfing during his presidency. But that criticism hasn't continued into the Trump presidency. President Trump has regularly visited these golf courses that he owns. And White House aides have been hesitant to ever confirm that he is golfing. And this box truck and the video that we have is another example of the White House trying to obscure. We ‘ve reached out to the White House, to the Secret Service, and to the sheriff’s office down here to confirm was this their truck we haven't gotten many responses back so far, Don.
LEMON: I believe the word is hypocrisy, Dan, hypocrisy because he criticized the former president so much. And for those who may be criticizing CNN, we have video of every president playing golf, President Bush video of him, President Obama playing golf, as Dan Merica said that's what we do, we are there to report and show the American people what the president does every day.
Oh look, there is President Obama playing golf. There is no difference. Imagine that. We got video of President Obama playing golf. And it's not just President Trump. Hmm. It's not a conspiracy Dan, I thought it was.
(…)
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By Nicholas Fondacaro
 During Wednesday’sedition of Anderson Cooper 360, fill-in host and former Obama administration flack Jim Sciutto highlighted a race that was a political junkie’s dream: A race so close it would be decided by drawing a name out of a hat. But the race for Virginia’s 94th district was consequential because a win for the Democrat would change the control of the House of Delegates. Of course, Sciutto sided with the Democrat and seriously wondered if someone was trying to still the win away.
“After a recount, it appeared that Democratic candidate Shelly Simonds won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates by just one vote. At least until a panel of judges awarded her opponent, the incumbent David Yancy, one last last-minute ballot. That left the election in a tie,” Sciutto reported as he led into the segment and while sounding a little letdown.
After explaining how the tie meant a name was set to be drawn out of a hat earlier in the day, Sciutto sounded a bit more cheerful when he noted how “that process was delayed, however, because Simonds filed a motion to ask the judges to reconsider their decision on that final mystery ballot.” And instead of bringing on political experts to discuss the interesting case, he actually reached out and had Simonds on the show to make the case for her victory, with an on-screen headline claiming she was "speaking out."
CNN put a picture of the tie making ballot on the screen. The image showed where the voter filled in both bubbles for the Republican incumbent, David Yancy, and Democrat Simonds. But in an apparent effort to correct the ballot, the voter put a slash over Simonds’ bubble.
Sciutto teed Simonds up to slam the voting process. “Well, you know, in Virginia we have very clear rules. I'm sure most other states do too about what ballots can be counted and what ballots are considered overvotes to be thrown out,” she argued. “But I'm afraid that that ballot really is not in the handbook and it should have been thrown out. And it really saddens me that the judges didn't feel the same.”
“So you're taking this to court in effect,” Sciutto touted in a follow-up question. “And the judges will have to decide whether this is a spoiled ballot or should be counted for the Republican?” Simonds explained to him that the court had two choices in her opinion: Send the ballot to the State Board of Elections for a ruling or to strike the ballot and give her the victory by one vote.
Before Sciutto ended the interview he got real serious and asked Simonds if she thought there was a conspiracy to steal the election out from under her: “Just very quickly, does part of you worry that someone is trying to take this away from you?” And Simonds obliged:
I think clearly my opponent's team did not play by the rules of the recount. We actually had a court order that said any ballot that was to be contested had to be marked on the recount day, on Tuesday. So they did not follow the rules of the recount.
Sciutto’s baseless speculation here was similar to what the liberal media has been saying about President Trump’s win over Hillary Clinton.
So much for "#FactsFirst." This is CNN.
Transcript below:
CNN
Anderson Cooper 360
December 27, 2017
8:30:13 PM Eastern
JIM SCIUTTO: We've all heard the old adage that every vote counts. For our next guest and the Virginia district she is hoping to represent, that is quite literally true. After a recount, it appeared that Democratic candidate Shelly Simonds won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates by just one vote. At least until a panel of judges awarded her opponent, the incumbent David Yancy, one last last-minute ballot. That left the election in a tie. Thousands voted and this election was almost decided today by putting the candidate's names on slips of paper in film canisters and picking one out of a hat. It still might be decided that way.
That process was delayed, however, because Simonds filed a motion to ask the judges to reconsider their decision on that final mystery ballot. To be clear, this race and that one vote is not just about this one delegate. If Simonds wins, the Republicans lose their majority and control over the House of Delegates and that would be for the first time in 20 years.
 (…)
Let's take a look at this ballot that came out of nowhere that tied it up again because I want to get your thoughts on it. Here it is. If you look down there, we'll get a little closer, I hope, to see that what happened is that this voter filled in the bubbles for both you and your Republican opponent. Now, to be clear, they then put a slash mark through your name and the question, I suppose, is whether they meant you or the other guy. But tell me your view of this and where this ballot came from.
SHELLY SIMONDS: Well, you know, in Virginia we have very clear rules. I'm sure most other states do too about what ballots can be counted and what ballots are considered overvotes to be thrown out. And there's a handbook with very clear rules about this. And that gave me a lot of confidence going into the recount. But I'm afraid that that ballot really is not in the handbook and it should have been thrown out. And it really saddens me that the judges didn't feel the same.
SCIUTTO: So you're taking this to court in effect, and the judges will have to decide whether this is a spoiled ballot or should be counted for the Republican?
SIMONDS: You know, I think the judges are going to have several options. One option is since the ballot does not appear in the handbook for the State Board of Elections, they can actually refer it to the state board for guidance, which I think would be a really good option for them. The other thing that they can do is they can decide not to count that ballot and change their opinion that it is an overvote.
(…)
SCIUTTO: Just very quickly, does part of you worry that someone is trying to take this away from you?
SIMONDS: I think clearly my opponent's team did not play by the rules of the recount. We actually had a court order that said any ballot that was to be contested had to be marked on the recount day, on Tuesday. So they did not follow the rules of the recount.
(…)
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