Jim Acosta from CNN spoke at the AFC-USA: his advice to foreign correspondents

By Tiara James

American journalist, Jim Acosta, has had an active career that spans over the past 27 years. He is best known for his work at CNN, where he currently serves as the network’s chief domestic affairs correspondent. Over the course of his career, Acosta covered and worked closely with multiple U.S. presidential campaigns and administrations including the 2012 campaign trail for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the campaigns and 8-year run of former president Barack Obama, and the latest former president Donald Trump. Acosta’s work sets the bar high for journalists all across the world. On February 24, 2021, he sat down with the AFC-USA to discuss his career and to give advice to upcoming international journalists.

Relationship with Trump Administration

It was a moment heard by journalists all around the world – the White House temporarily suspended Jim Acosta’s press pass in November 2018 under the Trump Administration. A move that ultimately, infringed on Acosta’s civil rights and violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. “At that time, I thought my career was going up in flames. I thought there was a chance that they could permanently remove me from the White House.” Acosta said regarding the incident.

 The revoking of his press pass was due to Acosta questioning then-President Donald Trump about his wording when it came to speaking on immigration. A White House intern attempted to intervene by taking the microphone and Acosta politely refused. Then-White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, tried to justify her decision by showcasing a doctored video that attempted to make Acosta appear as being much more violent with the White House intern. This showed the lengths that the administration would go to in order to intimidate journalists.

“They were trying to intimidate my entire news organization in hopes that the pressure would bring to bear a result that they would like, which would basically mean me backing down and so on,” said Acosta. CNN took the Trump administration to court where Trump-appointed judge, Timothy J. Kelly, found that the administration had indeed violated Acosta’s civil rights and ruled in CNN’s favor.

 Acosta described the mishap as ‘surreal’ and said that he was only trying to do his job. He noted that if CNN had let the former administration get away with that kind of behavior, it would have set a detrimental example to the politician-journalist relationships across the world.

 During his coverage on the Trump administration, Acosta revealed that he would receive death threats for his truthful reporting on the then-president. He said that the last four years were a ‘huge test’ for the U.S. and democracy and that as time goes on, we’ll have a better sense of the damage that was done and the lessons that were learned.

Reinstating Faith in the Press

Public opinion surveys suggest that the approval rating of the press is at a historical low. There are many factors that could play into that number. Acosta reasons with that conclusions by saying Americans are answering based on reporters they don’t like. For the past four years, there was also constant friction between the White House and the Press. While speaking with the AFC, Acosta recalled times where former White House Press Secretary, Kaleigh McEnany, would end White House briefings with attacks on the press and questioning their motives.

Though the Trump administration often referred to the press as the ‘enemy of the people’ and would blame them for spreading ‘fake news’, Acosta believes there’s still a great majority of Americans that have faith in the press.  “As journalists we have to continue to be fact-checkers in real time, cover these false conspiracy theories when they crop up, try to knock them down as best as we can and show people what the truth is, we can’t shrink from that.” Acosta said.

Since the ending of Donald Trump’s term as president, Acosta mentioned that it’s as if the volume’s been turned down and said he believes everybody wanted a break from the toxicity of the past administration – which is essentially what the U.S. is getting with the Biden Administration.

Even though tensions in White House briefings have been alleviated, Acosta made sure to say, “We’ll be just as tough on the Biden Administration as we were on the Trump Administration.”

Advice to AFC Members

At the end of the conference, the AFC gave the floor to scholarship awardees to ask Acosta any questions. Awardee Sarah Peter from St. Lucia inquired about how to deal with hostile environments when interviewing and how to get a foot in the door as a journalist.

Regarding hostile environments, Acosta laughed seeing as how he’s been accustomed to dealing with difficult interview subjects. He said with brash, uncooperative interview participants, it’s best to bite your tongue and let the person talks and then hit them with a hard question because they may end up contradicting themselves.

Acosta also pointed out that it’s important to always wonder: how can I make this resonate with my audience? By asking yourself such a question, you are making sure you differentiate yourself. He told members when he first started in his career, he was answering phones and getting people their coffee – he mentioned that it’s crucial to be open to taking a very low-level job and understanding that it’s going to take a while to get to your goal position. 

“Being grounded and being humble and thinking about where you came from and so on can get you pretty far in this business.” Said Acosta.