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

Filing 3

LARGE ADDITIONAL ATTACHMENT(S) re 2 MOTION for Temporary Restraining Order filed by CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC., ABILIO JAMES ACOSTA. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit 7, # 2 Exhibit 8, # 3 Exhibit 9, # 4 Exhibit 10, # 5 Exhibit 11, # 6 Exhibit 12, # 7 Exhibit 13, # 8 Exhibit 14, # 9 Exhibit 15, # 10 Exhibit 16, # 11 Exhibit 17, # 12 Exhibit 18, # 13 Exhibit 19, # 14 Exhibit 20, # 15 Exhibit 21, # 16 Exhibit 22, # 17 Exhibit 23, # 18 Exhibit 24, # 19 Exhibit 25, # 20 Exhibit 26, # 21 Exhibit 27, # 22 Exhibit 28, # 23 Exhibit 29, # 24 Exhibit 30, # 25 Exhibit 31, # 26 Exhibit 32, # 27 Exhibit 33, # 28 Exhibit 34, # 29 Exhibit 35, # 30 Exhibit 36, # 31 Exhibit 37, # 32 Exhibit 38, # 33 Exhibit 39, # 34 Exhibit 40, # 35 Exhibit 41, # 36 Exhibit 42, # 37 Exhibit 43, # 38 Exhibit 44, # 39 Exhibit 45, # 40 Exhibit 46, # 41 Exhibit 47, # 42 Exhibit 48, # 43 Exhibit 49, # 44 Exhibit 50, # 45 Exhibit 51, # 46 Exhibit 52, # 47 Exhibit 53, # 48 Exhibit 54)(jf)

Exhibit 40

11/11/2018

Sarah Sanders's diabolically clever attack on CNN's Jim Acosta - The Washington Post

The Washington Post
Post Partisan Opinion

Sarah Sanders’s diabolically clever attack on Jim Acosta
By Molly Roberts

“This is a lie.”
That was CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s response to White House press secretary Sarah
Sanders’s accusation that he had placed “his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job.”
The original video of Acosta’s (non-) altercation with a press aide shows the aide grabbing the
microphone in Acosta’s hand and Acosta’s wrist landing on her arm as he gesticulates downward. The
version of the video Sanders shared late last night, courtesy of Infowars, makes Acosta’s movement
appear accelerated so that he seems the aggressor, and the movement itself seems aggressive. There is a
tortuous debate over to what extent the clip was deliberately distorted, but the effect is clear enough.
Acosta looks like Sanders wants him to.
So Acosta is right: This is a lie. But no one agrees on what the truth is anymore, and that’s exactly what
Sanders was counting on.
Sanders’s decision to reframe pure anti-press sentiment as a blow struck from the moral high ground
against a physical abuser is ludicrously hypocritical — and remarkably canny. A favorite narrative of
conservatives over the past nine months has been that the mainstream media is conspiring to destroy the
lives of men, and Republican men in particular, with false allegations of sexual assault. There was Roy
Moore, there was Brett M. Kavanaugh, and of course there is President Trump himself.
The concerns that conservatives broadcast about unsubstantiated allegations of assault are based on the
premise that these accusations are cast wildly without any regard for the capital-T Truth. But they’re not.
There is no leap of journalistic faith required to believe stories in publications from the New Yorker to
the New York Times to The Post. These stories are carefully vetted: The accused have a chance to
respond. The potentially exculpatory is included right alongside the incriminating. The press certainly
reported unproven allegations against Kavanaugh, but reporters were consistently up front about what
we knew and what we didn’t.
Sanders is cleverly compelling progressives to prop up a Republican talking point: False allegations exist,
and people will pay attention to them. When Acosta’s defenders cry out against Sanders, she can cry
right back that the liberals are the ones who always insist on believing women — and that the press does
not care about abuse when it is one of its own who is accused. Reporters are forced to defend both their
reporting on abuse allegations and their colleague who Sanders alleges is himself an abuser.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/11/08/sarah-sanderss-diabolically-clever-attack-on-jim-acosta/?utm_term=.2f6c3aac18f8

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11/11/2018

Sarah Sanders's diabolically clever attack on CNN's Jim Acosta - The Washington Post

It’s also clever because Sanders knows the Trumpian base to whom she is pandering will believe her. As
much as the right wing is primed to doubt conspicuously careful reporting from legacy outlets, they are
ready to accept without question unvetted tales from the administration and “alternative” sources such
as Infowars. And those alternative sources are ready, with the help of automated accounts, to spread
those stories far and wide. So to many Americans, the altered altercation footage featuring Jim Acosta,
notorious abuser of women, is the real thing.
This is the surest way to wage a war against the press. Americans live in split realities, and Sanders
knows it. She is inverting a narrative that has already inflamed conservatives against the press to inflame
them further, playing on anger about assault allegations to amplify distrust and division. It’s working.
After all, no matter which side you’re on, you’re probably pretty mad right now.
Molly Roberts
Molly Roberts writes about technology and society for The Post's Opinions section. Follow 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/11/08/sarah-sanderss-diabolically-clever-attack-on-jim-acosta/?utm_term=.2f6c3aac18f8

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