CNN’s Jim Acosta sends profanity-laced private message to former Trump staffer
CNN’s White House Correspondent Jim Acosta decided to prove, once again, that he clearly doesn’t have the temperament to handle criticism. Jim has been featured in the public spotlight several times for his repeated and exhausting criticism of President Trump and the Trump White House, and has been in the news several times for showdowns against White House Press Sec. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Late Thursday night, after President Trump’s rally in Missoula, Montana, Jim Acosta complained about the loud music that was being played at the rally while Jim Acosta was on air reporting in Montana. He took to Twitter, saying, “Tonight the Trump Campaign/WH turned up the music so loud the press risers were vibrating. Nearly impossible to do live TV. I suppose the WH loves those kinds of shenanigans. But I wonder if it’s a security concern for USSS or local law enforcement. They can’t hear either.”
Justin Caporale, the former director of operations for first lady Melania Trump, responded to Jim Acosta’s tweet with the phrase “Dear diary,” a common phrase used by criticizers of Acosta to claim that he often tweets in penchant about himself.
Unfortunately, Jim Acosta didn’t enjoy this tweet very much and decided to get very angry with Justin Caporale by sending him a Twitter direct message that simply said: “F*** you” (Source*: Twitter/Justin Caporale)
Justin Caporale then posted a screenshot of the message from Acosta on Twitter, saying, “IM SORRY. WHATTTT?????” He later followed up his tweet with “This is CNN,” then later posted that Acosta had also blocked him. Finally, Justin finished his Twitter rampage about Acosta by saying, “[Acosta] you owe me an apology.” (Source: Twitter/Justin Caporale)
Acosta later apologized to Caporale publicly for the message, saying in a tweet, “Hey buddy I thought you were an old friend from the campaign days. I’m so sorry. Hope I didn’t offend you. Have a good night and take care.” (Source: Twitter/Jim Acosta)
This is literally how insane our news cycle is becoming. We now have White House press correspondents going around screaming “f*** you” to people they don’t like using Twitter messages. Jim Acosta has once again proven he can’t seem to ignore people who don’t agree with him and that he’s about as sensitive as a two-year-old toddler. This is a pretty good example of how you shouldn’t handle trolling online, and I thank Jim Acosta for giving us a great example of how journalists shouldn’t behave — egotistical, rude, profane, and easily offended by the smallest things. Acosta has been the frontrunner for CNN lately, constantly shoving the agenda he wants to push, and clearly he can’t tolerate people who don’t like his agenda.
Dozens of people have taken to Twitter and other social media platforms to confirm that they too were blocked by Jim Acosta on Twitter in the past, and some of them were blocked for simply asking him civil questions. Acosta clearly can’t handle any kind of civil debate and discussion, especially given his actions at White House press briefings.
Unfortunately, it is really hard to trust Acosta’s “apology” because it seems like a lousy cover-up for his disgusting behavior and actions. His apology just screams, “I was forced to do this in order to not look bad.” Acosta’s apology is hardly genuine at all given that Acosta took to Twitter on Friday to complain about the “right-wing” news websites “freaking out” about him. “Is this that ‘owning the libs’ thing?” Acosta said in his tweet. Jim Acosta loves complaining about the President’s political rhetoric on Twitter, but Acosta’s rhetoric on Twitter might not be any better. If this is how he treats old buddies, I wonder how Acosta treats his enemies — or even the President.
The funny part is that if the roles were reversed in this situation, and a former Obama aide received this message from a Fox News correspondent, I wonder if said Fox News correspondent would still have a job a few hours later. I’m not calling for the firing of Acosta here, because that would be an extreme exaggeration, but the double-standard of how we treat public figures is becoming increasingly obvious.
Political tensions are rising steadily, and actions like Acosta’s are not helping ease said tensions. Plenty of Twitter users tweeted out their support for Acosta, saying that he was “too civil” and that he “should have said a lot worse than that.” We shouldn’t be condoning any kind of politically charged harassment towards anyone, even from the President. Let’s continue to show respect towards those you disagree with. Just because you believe your political values are more moral than others doesn’t give you the right to cuss people out on Twitter. It’s okay to have civil discussion, but don’t be another Acosta.
*Editor’s note about the Acosta message screenshot: A simple screenshot of a direct message is not enough evidence to prove that the message was actually sent. In the digital age, it’s extremely easy to fake screenshots and crop them to appear a certain way that looks bad. Because of this, it should not be a common practice to use a screenshot as a “source.” However, the publication The Daily Caller was able to log into Justin Caporale’s Twitter account (with his consent), and verify that the message was indeed real. For this reason, and because Acosta sent out a public apology about the message, we included Justin’s tweet as a source, and assume it was indeed sent by Acosta using his Twitter account.