Chris Wallace Scolds CNN’s Acosta for Heated Trump Exchange: I Was ‘Horrified’ by His Comments

Fox News’ Chris Wallace tonight scolded CNN’s Jim Acosta for a heated exchange he had with President Donald Trump.

Acosta got into a fiery back-and-forth with the president over the recent Russian intel briefing, with Trump asking “didn’t [CNN] apologize for the fact that they said certain things that weren’t true?” and Acosta remarking, “Mr. President, I think our record on delivering the truth is a lot better than yours sometimes, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Wallace spoke at an event at Columbia Journalism School Tuesday with New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman, talking about journalism in the Trump era and particularly the fact that the president attacks them and other journalists on a regular basis.

At one point, Wallace reiterated his serious criticism of the president’s attacks on the press but he also made a point of talking about how journalists can’t be engaging in ways like Acosta did:

“We can’t control the president’s behavior, we shouldn’t try to control the president’s behavior, what we can do is control our behavior, and I worry that the president’s attacks have given too many straight news reporters — not talking about the opinion page or primetime — an excuse or license to cross the line themselves and to become players on the field. And I think that is a huge mistake.”

He said he was “horrified” by Acosta’s comments and said, “It’s not our job to get in fights with presidents, it’s not our job to one-up presidents, it’s our job to report on presidents.”

CNN communications vice president Matt Dornic responded to the Hollywood Reporter’s coverage of Wallace’s comments and said, “Chris Wallace literally works for state TV.”

Chris Wallace literally works for state TV. I don’t think @Acosta or any real journalist ought to be taking advice from him. Chris, if only you spent as much time and effort sharing these morsels of wisdom with your own colleagues… https://t.co/TtAbA4B1Jd

— Matt Dornic (@mdornic) February 25, 2020

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/3a1OxbJ