During last week\u2019s post-election White House press conference, CNN\u2019s Jim Acosta demonstrated his ignorance of the basic tenets of reporting. Rather than seeking the facts, he sought the spotlight by attempting to school President Trump about the Central American migrant caravan.<\/p>\n
Acosta opened up his exchange<\/a> by asserting he \u201cwanted to challenge\u201d the president about his use of the term \u201cinvasion\u201d to describe thousands of migrants coming toward the U.S. border.<\/p>\n Instead of striving to understand the president\u2019s viewpoint, he merely pushed his own.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you know, Mr. President, the caravan was not an invasion. It\u2019s a group of migrants moving up from Central America towards the border with the U.S.,\u201d proclaimed Acosta.<\/p>\n Acosta will need to add the residents and government officials in Tijuana, Mexico to his lecture circuit.<\/p>\n On Friday, Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum termed the influx of migrants an \u201cavalanche,\u201d while Luis Alexis Mendoza, a carpenter in the Mexican town, screamed that \u201cthis is an invasion,\u201d according to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other residents also voiced their objection to more than 3,000 migrants descending upon their town.<\/p>\n \u201c[Tijuana residents] accused the migrants of being messy, ungrateful and a danger to Tijuana. They also complained about how the caravan forced its way into Mexico, calling it an \u2018invasion.\u2019 And they voiced worries that their taxes might be spent to care for the group,\u201d reported the Associated Press<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n CNN\u2019s chief correspondent also disputed the notion that migrants would attempt to enter the U.S. by scaling the border fence in California or Texas.<\/p>\n He accused the president of demonizing migrants by airing an ad showing \u201cmigrants climbing over walls\u201d on the border and then declared, \u201cThey\u2019re not going to be doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n Actually, they already had tried to climb over a wall along the border near San Diego. News outlets captured video<\/a> of migrants scaling part of the border fence near Border Field State Park \u2013 one day before Acosta insisted they would not.<\/p>\n If Acosta wants to be recognized (and respected) as a reporter, he should make it a priority to report <\/em>the facts, not report the facts as he sees them.