CNN’s Jim Acosta is a hypocrite. Yesterday, Acosta went on a rant about the essential unseriousness of the Trump White House. “Here he comes out today tweeting about Roseanne Barr,” Acosta said, referring to President Trump. He continued, “It just gets to the lack of seriousness. Forget about the fact that Kim Kardashian is here at the White House today and what planet that is anything resembling normal, because it’s not.
“She shouldn’t be here talking about prison reform. It’s nice that she is here but that’s not a serious thing to have happened here at the White House.”
Let’s start with the fact that it’s absurd for Acosta to criticize Trump for tweeting about the Roseanne story, as if that wasn’t the biggest news story on CNN Tuesday. Media Matters found that CNN spent 4 hours, 48 minutes covering the Roseanne story compared to just 12 minutes covering an estimate of the death toll in Puerto Rico. Here’s a chart created by Media Matters showing CNN was by far the worst offender, even topping MSNBC by more than an hour:
As for the unseriousness of having Kim Kardashian at the White House, it’s hard to argue with that on principle. The problem for Jim Acosta is that he didn’t seem to have a problem with celebrities meeting with the President at the White House to discuss mass incarceration back when Obama was doing exactly the same thing in 2016. From Time:
According to a White House official Nicki Minaj, Chance the Rapper, Alicia Keys, Wale, J. Cole, and Ludacris were among the stars who sat down with Obama and some of his top advisers to talk about criminal justice reform and the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative. An official says the stars were singled out due to their work within communities to confront issues facing young people.
But Acosta’s hypocrisy is much more glaring than that. He personally promoted celebrity musician John Legend pushing the president on this exact issue when he was touting an interview with Legend in 2015:
After #WHCD tune in for a must see interview with the great @johnlegend who joins us this Sunday on @CNNsotu pic.twitter.com/EtTsIc3IOT
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 25, 2015
A celebrity is pushing Obama on criminal justice reform? Acosta is cool with it:
Artist @johnlegend to @CNNsotu – "I'm going to push the president to get more involved in criminal justice reform."
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 26, 2015
On @CNNsotu @johnlegend on allegations of police brutality around country "we still need to be outraged about these things."
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 26, 2015
This one might be my favorite:
It's personal – @johnlegend on issue of mass incarceration: "I could have been one of them." @CNNsotu
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 26, 2015
Lest there’s any doubt that Acosta liked talking about very serious issues with celebrities:
@keithmartinmd @CNNsotu @johnlegend thanks very much! I thought he was great too.
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 26, 2015
Legend's art and activism go hand-in-handhttp://t.co/41PVZwmh06 @johnlegend @CNNsotu
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) April 26, 2015
You can watch Acosta’s very serious 2015 interview with John Legend on mass incarceration and police brutality here. Below is Acosta’s rant about the unseriousness of the having Kim Kardashian at the White House to discuss the same issue.
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