Acosta and the intern: A media double standard?

The progression of media framing of the incident can be seen in the timeline below, charting the percentage of online news coverage monitored by the GDELT Project that mentioned “Acosta” (in blue), Acosta and either “arm” or “contact” anywhere in the article (in orange) and Acosta and either “female” or “woman” (in gray) from last Wednesday through this past Tuesday.

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After an initial burst of coverage emphasizing the verbal clash, reporting shifted within a few hours to focus on his physical altercation with the female intern. This focus lasted for just over a day before coverage largely dropped mentions of the intern’s gender or specifics of their physical encounter.

In their place, media outlets largely framed Acosta’s White House ban as an assault on press freedom rather than as a penalty for his physical confrontation with a female aide. A CNN lawsuit, announced this week, to restore Acosta’s press credentials suggests that even at a corporate level the company does not see his actions as problematic.

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