CNN's Acosta Still Banned From White House Grounds

CNN said that as of Thursday night (Nov. 8), senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta's revoked press pass had still not been reinstated by the White House.

It was unclear what the duration of his ouster would be after the White House claimed he had manhandled an intern in retaining the mic and pressing the President in a press conference.

Related: CNN Says Trump Has Gone Too Far

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders had tweeted a video of the exchange between Costa, the President, and an intern trying to take away Acosta's mic, to demonstrate how Acosta had manhandled her, but AP had an analyst look at the tweeted video (as did other news organizations) and he said it appeared to have been manipulated to make Acosta seem more aggressive.

Acosta is not simply cooling his heels, however, CNN pointed out that he reported Thursday that Labor Secretary Alex Acosta (no relation) was being considered for the vacant attorney general post—following Jeff Session's post-election ouster. Jim Acosta is also traveling to Paris to cover the President's trip there.

CNN says it is working "behind the scenes" to get Acosta's hard pass to the White House grounds restored. 

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.