We suspect that most readers are familiar with the old joke about the two campers and the bear. Just in case, though, it goes like this: Two campers awaken one morning, and one of them goes to the nearby river to get some water. A few minutes later, he comes running back, at breakneck speed, and starts putting on his tennis shoes. The other fellow, the one who remained at the campsite, says, "What the heck are you doing?" The first fellow says, "I saw a bear over by the river, and he's headed this way." The stay-behind camper asks: "Why bother with your shoes? You can't outrun a bear, with or without them." "I don't have to outrun the bear," the first fellow responds. "I just have to outrun you."
What does that have to do with anything? We'll get to that. For now, we will note that Jim Acosta's time at CNN has come to an end. The management was planning to move the anchor to the midnight shift, which is the journalistic equivalent of Siberia. Rather than accept the obvious, heavy-duty demotion, Acosta decided to quit. In his message announcing his departure, he implored viewers: "Don't give in to the lies. Don't give in to the fear."
Acosta did not use any names, but it's hardly a secret what person he had in mind. The soon-to-be-former CNN anchor has butted heads with Donald Trump on numerous occasions, which is why the network wanted Acosta to be either gone or else forgotten. Trump, ever the embodiment of class, took to his obscure and lightly trafficked social media platform to celebrate:
Wow, really good news! Jim Acosta, one of the worst and most dishonest reporters in journalistic history, a major sleazebag, has been relegated by CNN Fake News to the Midnight hour, "Death Valley," because of extraordinarily BAD RATINGS (and no talent!). Word is that he wants to QUIT, and that would be even better. Jim is a major loser who will fail no matter where he ends up. Good luck Jim!
Just in case you have forgotten in the past 30 seconds, this man is the President of the United States.
We must admit, we cannot figure out exactly what the long-term plan is at CNN, ABC, The Washington Post and these other outlets who are kowtowing to Trump. Obviously, we understand that they all have billion-dollar corporate business concerns that are informing their journalistic choices. But what exactly are they going to do over the next 4 years? We can think of several possibilities, though none of them really pass the smell test:
Maybe we are giving the corporate honchos too much credit in thinking they actually have a plan. All we know is that maintaining their corporate interests AND their news-gathering operations look to be mutually exclusive propositions over the next 4 years, particularly since they've concluded that Trump simply must be placated. (Z)