THAT CNN SUIT AGAINST THE WHITE HOUSE – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  You'd think the press was some kind of weak institution, with the need to sue the president over some minor grievance.  Bob Woodward speaks out about it, intelligently.  From the New York Post:

Famed Watergate journalist Bob Woodward blasted CNN for suing the Trump administration over its suspension of Jim Acosta’s press credentials, according to a report.

“Too many people for Trump or against Trump have become emotionally unhinged about this,” Woodward said at the Global Financial Leadership Conference in Naples, Florida, on Tuesday, according to Fox News.

“The remedy [isn’t a lawsuit],” argued Woodward, whose explosive tell-all “Fear” described a White House in disarray. “It’s more serious reporting about what he’s doing.”

The cable news network filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Washington, DC, seeking to have the White House correspondent’s so-called “hard pass” restored after he was banned for tussling with an intern during a news conference with President Trump.

Woodward said that CNN was taking the president’s “bait” by hiring high-profile attorney Ted Olson to pursue the federal case.

“This is a negative,” he said. “Trump is sitting around saying, ‘This is great!’”

CNN’s lawsuit alleges that the White House violated Acosta’s First and Fifth Amendment rights by penalizing him for the content of his speech without providing notice or due process.

The White House maintains that Acosta was punished solely because of his behavior. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders described CNN’s lawsuit as “grandstanding.”

“The White House cannot run an orderly and fair press conference when a reporter acts this way, which is neither appropriate nor professional,” she said in a statement Tuesday.

Woodward has cautioned journalists covering the president, once telling The Atlantic that people “see the smugness” of some in the media and that “following the facts” objectively is one way to help regain the trust of the public, The Hill reported.

COMMENT:  He's certainly right about the smugness.  And the public does indeed see it, as polls have pointed out.

About the case, I think it's ridiculous, but I am not a Constitutional scholar.  Some legal experts are supporting CNN on First Amendment grounds, and I'm sorry to see that Fox News is throwing its support behind its rival as well.

I think it would be best for the country if the case were thrown out, and the two hotheaded parties sat down in the back room of a second-rate restaurant and worked out a solution.   I wonder, though, whether the rulers of CNN want it settled.  If they lose, they become martyrs.   If they win, they become heroes of the left.  Not a bad place to be in, if you think like CNN.

November 14,  2018