CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC. et al v. TRUMP et al

Filing 2

MOTION for Temporary Restraining Order by ABILIO JAMES ACOSTA, CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC. (Attachments: # 1 Memorandum in Support, # 2 65.1 Statement, # 3 Declaration of Sam Donaldson, # 4 Declaration of Same Feist, # 5 Declaration of Todd Joseph Gillman, # 6 Declaration of Jim Acosta, # 7 Declaration of Theodore J. Boutrous, # 8 Exhibit 1, # 9 Exhibit 2, # 10 Exhibit 3, # 11 Exhibit 4, # 12 Exhibit 5, # 13 Text of Proposed Order) (jf)

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Exhibit 3

Donald Trump’s News Session Starts War With and Within Media - The New York Times

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Donald Trump’s News Session Starts
War With and Within Media

President-elect Donald J. Trump had sharp words for a CNN reporter: “Your organization’s
terrible. ... You are fake news.” Jan. 11, 2017 • Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

By Michael M. Grynbaum
Jan. 11, 2017

He deemed BuzzFeed News “a failing pile of garbage,” mocked an inquiry about
his tax returns — “Gee, I’ve never heard that one before” — and, in an unheardof moment for a presidential news conference, shouted down questions from a

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/business/media/donald-trump-buzzfeed-cnn.html[11/10/2018 1:42:07 PM]

Donald Trump’s News Session Starts War With and Within Media - The New York Times

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CNN reporter, declaring, with some menace, “Not you.”

“Your organization is terrible,” said President-elect Donald J. Trump, his voice
rising as Jim Acosta of CNN tried to interject. “No, I’m not going to give you a
question. I’m not going to give you a question.”
“You,” the president-elect said, as Mr. Acosta and other stunned journalists
looked on, “are fake news.”
Any hope that Mr. Trump would temper his attacks on the news media after the
campaign seemed to dissipate in the marble atrium of Trump Tower on
Wednesday, as the president-elect, holding his first news conference since July,
turned a controversy over his ties to Russia into a deft and unrelenting attack
on the journalists who reported it.
It was a spectacle that attracted nearly 300 reporters to Midtown Manhattan —
the news conference was carried live in Australia, England and Germany — and
it came against an extraordinary backdrop: reports that intelligence officials
had briefed Mr. Trump on a document alleging collusion between the Russian
government and his campaign.
CNN broke the news on Tuesday but declined to publish specific allegations,
saying its reporters could not verify them. BuzzFeed News published the
unverified claims in full, a move that prompted an ethical debate in journalistic
circles — and offered Mr. Trump an opening.
“The fact that BuzzFeed and CNN made the decision to run with this
unsubstantiated claim is a sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks,” the incoming
White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said, inaccurately lumping the two
news organizations together.
But the result was classic Trump: Not only did he break the norms of
presidential engagement with the news media, snubbing organizations because
of an unflattering story, but he also had elements of a frustrated political press
corps warring with one another.
Immediately after the news conference, CNN defended its reporting and drew a

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/business/media/donald-trump-buzzfeed-cnn.html[11/10/2018 1:42:07 PM]

Donald Trump’s News Session Starts War With and Within Media - The New York Times

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sharp distinction between its news story and “BuzzFeed’s decision to publish
unsubstantiated memos.” On a broadcast, the CNN anchor Jake Tapper said
that BuzzFeed’s move “hurts us all.”
“It’s irresponsible to put uncorroborated information on the internet,’’ Mr.
Tapper said. “I can understand why President-elect Trump would be upset
about that; I would be upset about it. too.’’
Later, Chuck Todd, the NBC News moderator, repeatedly pressed BuzzFeed’s
editor in chief, Ben Smith, on why unverified claims did not amount to “fake
news.”

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Wednesday in New York held a news conference for the first
time in six months. Jan. 11, 2017 • Damon Winter/The New York Times

Mr. Smith, for his part, said he was “not going to participate in an attempt to
divide the media against each other.” (In a memo on Wednesday, BuzzFeed’s
chief executive, Jonah H. Peretti, defended the move. “We are going to keep
doing what we do best, which is deliver impactful journalism,” he wrote.)
Still, by the time the news conference finished — with Omarosa Manigault, the
“Apprentice” star and future member of the White House staff, heckling Mr.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/business/media/donald-trump-buzzfeed-cnn.html[11/10/2018 1:42:07 PM]

Donald Trump’s News Session Starts War With and Within Media - The New York Times

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Acosta, shouting, “Cut it out!” — Mr. Trump had bobbed and weaved his way
through nearly an hour of interrogation, offering vague answers to critical
questions about his administration.
Yet the conduct of the news media, a familiar foil from Mr. Trump’s campaign
days, remained at the center of the day’s story.
The treatment of Mr. Acosta raised alarms among news media advocates and
his fellow journalists, particularly after Mr. Acosta described a threat by Mr.
Spicer to eject him from the news conference when he persisted in trying to ask
the president-elect a question.
Harsh words between reporters and press secretaries happen. But an anchor for
a rival network, Shepard Smith of Fox News, later came to Mr. Acosta’s defense,
saying that no “journalists should be subjected to belittling and delegitimizing
by the president-elect of the United States.”
The National Press Club also lamented Mr. Trump’s behavior, saying in a
statement: “Presidents shouldn’t get to pick and choose which reporters’
questions they will answer based on what news outlet for which they work.”
Mr. Trump, who ultimately took one question from a CNN reporter, also called
on journalists from two right-leaning organizations: BreitbartNews and One
America News. Matthew Boyle, the Breitbart reporter, asked the president-elect
for his ideas on how to reform the news media.
Mostly, however, Mr. Trump took questions from journalists at the major
television networks, with John Roberts of Fox News going first. A Greek chorus
of sorts — mostly Trump supporters and aides, including Ms. Manigault —
watched from the side, applauding Mr. Trump and jeering questions from
reporters they deemed unpleasant.
A man who prides himself on finding an opponent’s weakness, Mr. Trump at
one point zeroed in on an existential question that has lingered in many
newsrooms since his surprise victory: How much does the traditional news
media still matter in a polarized age?

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Donald Trump’s News Session Starts War With and Within Media - The New York Times

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When Hallie Jackson, an NBC News correspondent, asked the president-elect if
he would finally release his tax returns, to verify his claim that he has no
financial dealings in Russia, Mr. Trump scoffed.
“You know, the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters,
O.K.?” the president-elect said. “They’re the only ones who ask.”
“You don’t think the American public is concerned about it?” Ms. Jackson
asked.
“I don’t think so,” Mr. Trump replied, before laying down the political
equivalent of a mike-drop: ”I won.”
Sydney Ember contributed reporting
A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump
Attacks News Media, Which Then Battle Among Themselves. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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