Former CNN host Jim Acosta drafted a carefully thought out plan to stop President Donald Trump from shutting out legacy media outlets like The Associated Press when it did not abide by rules set by the White House — but a closer look shows an obvious comparison in the Disney musical “Newsies.”
Acosta, who made a name for himself during Trump’s first term as a foil for then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, left CNN when the network made it clear he was being banished to the graveyard shift. He’s since launched an independent show.
His current beef with the new Trump administration is actually a proxy war on behalf of The Associated Press, barred from access to Air Force One and the Oval Office over a refusal to update its style guide to reflect the newly-renamed Gulf of America. Acosta can relate on a personal level, having once had his own press credentials revoked after he attempted to wrest a microphone from the hands of a White House intern.
The plan, he says, is simple: the press should boycott the White House altogether, denying President Trump the mass media coverage he currently enjoys:
Reporters and their bosses, however, need to do more. For starters, the AP should consider challenging the White House harassment of its reporters in court. News outlets then must rally to the cause, by offering supportive statements to the court hearing the case, writing op-Ed’s backing the AP, and, if necessary, refusing to cover presidential movements in solidarity, until Trump backs down.
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News organizations in Washington should be banding together to send the message that members of the press will determine how they cover the news. Not the White House. Not the man behind the Resolute Desk, no matter how he redraws the world’s maps. The presidential Sharpie is not mightier than the pen.
So Acosta’s idea is to have legacy media rally around The AP, “refusing to cover” Trump’s movements until he capitulates.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because it could have been ripped straight from the Disney musical “Newsies.”
The “newsies,” who hawked newspapers on the streets of turn-of-the-century New York City, were attempting to unionize — a move opposed by newspaper giants Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst.
The newsies planned a rally, and Pulitzer issued a simple warning: “Rally till the cows come home. Not a paper in town will publish a word. And if it’s not in the papers, it never happened.”
And while Pulitzer made good on his threat and the major papers did not cover the rally, the newsies eventually published their own paper — and ultimately beat him at his own game.
With the Trump administration already moving to allow space in the White House briefing room to more conservative outlets and unconventional media, the framework is already laid for legacy media to boycott briefings as Acosta suggested — and it’s possible that coverage could still carry on without a hiccup.
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