CNN chief anti-Trump reporter Jim Acosta was criticized on social media for a tweet that quoted White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany out of context.
During Thursday’s briefing, McEnany reiterated President Trump’s firm stance of wanting children to return to school in the fall amid intense debate over how educators can prevent the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Science shouldn’t get in the way of this, but as Dr. Scott Atlas said, I thought this was a good quote: ‘Of course, we can do it. Everyone else in the Western world, our peer nations are doing it. we are the outliers here, ” McEnany said, citing the former chief neurologist at Stanford Medical Center.
“The science is very clear on this. For example, you look at the JAMA pediatric study of 46 pediatric hospitals in North America that says the risk of critical illness from COVID is much lower for children than seasonal flu. The science is in our side here. We encourage localities and states to just follow science. Open our schools, “he continued.
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However, Acosta tweeted about what McEnany said when he suggested it was unscientific.
“The White House press secretary on Trump’s push to reopen schools: ‘Science must not stand in the way of this,'” the liberal journalist tweeted.
Acosta later added, “McEnany went on to say ‘science is on our side here.'”
However, his first tweet garnered 30,000 retweets, while his follow-up tweet that provided much-needed context received fewer than 700. Those who shared the week out of context included Democratic lawmakers Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. David Cicilline , as well as several of his CNN colleagues.
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CNN’s chief correspondent in the White House was hit with a huge reaction.
“Classic stuff here. Acosta tweets half a quote without context and gets almost 20,000 retweets. He had plenty of room to add the full context in McEnany’s original comment that says” science is on our side here. “Wait 10 minutes before. from writing a second tweet, you get 450 RT, “wrote The Hill journalist Joe Concha.
“This is not journalism. It is a dishonest snippet used to generate animosity, rather than reporting,” Daily Caller editor Vince Coglianese tweeted.
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Even Acosta’s own colleague, Jake Tapper, weighed in on the distorted quote being shared, urging everyone to “read McEnany’s FULL comment.”
“I’m not taking a position on it, but be fair,” wrote the CNN presenter.
Acosta was not the only journalist to share the incomplete quote from the White House press secretary. CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, NBC News, The Guardian and The Washington Post reporter Josh Lederman similarly omitted their real support for science.
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McEnany criticized the biased reports.
“Case study on media bias,” wrote McEnany. “I said, ‘Science is very clear on this … science is on our side here. We encourage our localities and states to just follow science. Open up our schools!’ But let the media mislead suggest what you were doing. the opposite point! “
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