5 ms·
"Acosta: As you know, Mr. President, the caravan was not an invasion. It’s a group of migrants moving up from Central America towards the border with the U.S. A
by jki275 8y ago
"Acosta: As you know, Mr. President, the caravan was not an invasion. It’s a group of migrants moving up from Central America towards the border with the U.S. And …"
That's where he's rendering a political opinion.
It would be quite different if he said something like "Congressman so and so said just yesterday that this is not an invasion and is merely whatever and could you comment" or "There is concern in some circles about your rhetoric in calling this an invasion..., could you address this concern or explain why you believe this is an invasion" or something like those -- but in taking the "as you know" line, he's directly calling the President a liar, taking a political position on the issue himself, and trying to bait the President into arguing with him (which of course the President did as he always does).
- komali2 8y agoI disagree that this is a political opinion. I think this is one party (Acosta) challenging the other (the government employee) on objective fact, as per Acosta's job description. >“If someone says it’s raining & another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out of the fking window and find out which is true.” https://www.google.com/search?q=invasion https://www.google.com/search?q=invasion : > an instance of invading a country or region with an armed force. There are other definitions of "invasion" that can be applied, but why choose the word "invasion" when there are more accurate ones to choose that don't have the negative connotations? It is a bad faith use of the word "invasion" by the government to describe anything other than an actual armed invasion. How should they describe Russian troops landing on US soil if they've already used up the word "invasion" to describe impoverished asylum-seekers? >he's directly calling the President a liar. The president is a liar. He lies all the time. I'm glad the auditors are pushing my employee on this. He's lying about what he's using my money for and that infuriates me. https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byruling/false/ https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statem...
- jki275 8y agoAgain, you're missing the point. He's taking a political position, not being a journalist. It's not an objective fact as a significant portion of the US disagrees with you and Mr. Acosta. It's a matter of political discussion and has been for a while.
- komali2 8y agoI disagree, and have yet to be convinced it's an opinion instead of fact.
- jki275 8y agoit's a characterization. It's a colloquialism. You can argue that all day long, but calling it an "invasion" (which I don't really agree with btw), is a subjective statement based in opinion. The fact is that there are a lot of people travelling up through Mexico to the US border. How you characterize that is an opinion.
- Frondo 8y agoRebutting Donald's lie implicit in using the word "invasion" doesn't make what Jim Acosta asked a political opinion. It's not an invasion, and that's not a matter of politics, that's a statement of fact. As an analogy, if Donald said that the sky is green, that's not a matter of politics, that's a lie. Calling him out on it doesn't turn the color of the sky into a matter of politics. This is also at the heart of the argument that journalists aren't and shouldn't be stenographers -- if there's a lie out there, the people with the platform should be calling it one, not just reporting that it is merely a statement someone has made.
- BryantD 8y agoThe other respondents to your comment put it very well, so I'll just say that I agree. It's not an invasion. When the President lies, it's OK for a reporter to call him or her a liar.
- chrisco255 8y agoI don't know why you're getting downvoted. This is an accurate assessment. Acosta was LECTURING the President, not asking a couple of direct questions.
- jki275 8y agoPretty standard around here, I'm used to it. And from what I hear (I rarely watch the news anymore) Acosta is known for doing this both to the President and to the Press Secretary. It's a matter of respect, we don't have to like the guy in the office, but we should respect the office.
- komali2 8y agoWhy should we respect someone that is continually lying, insults our allies, and is bad at his job?
- jki275 8y agoWell, that's not what I said, was it?
- komali2 8y agoYou said we should respect the person in office. I see no reason to do so. In fact, it was argument without merit - it would be like me saying "you should eat an apple a day," as if the reason was self evident.
- jki275 8y agoNo, I specifically said one should respect the office, regardless of who holds it.