Tucker Carlson Rips CNN’s Jim Acosta for ‘Third-Rate Punditry’

Friday on his Fox News Channel show, Tucker Carlson criticized CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta, who he called “CNN’s most visible hard journalist,” for mixing “third-rate punditry” with his so-called journalism.

Partial transcript as follows:

CARLSON: Last year, CNN President Jeff Zucker gave an interview of publication variety for a puff piece literally entitled “How Jeff Zucker Made CNN great again.” Pretty hard-hitting story. In the piece, Zucker explained his formula for greatness. Hard news. Hard news. And yet more hard news. Quote, he said, “I think our air as supposed to others is truly fair and balanced.”

Jeff Zucker said that apparently without snickering. Which raises the question, how much CNN does Jeff Zucker actually watch? Has he seen Jim Acosta lately? Acosta is CNN’s senior White House correspondent. That is a title that suggests journalism rather than uninformed commentary. And yet, here is Acosta from just two days ago, unloading what he is clearly a pre-rehearsed editorial on CNN’s air. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think President Trump now has the world record for injecting politics into the aftermath of a terror attack. That is exactly what has happened in the last 12 hours or so as the President has been tweeting about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: This president won a world record for injecting politics? According to Jim Acosta, reporter, that is, quote, “Exactly what happened.” Can we get some documentation for that claim? A certificate from the Guinness book, maybe? Did CNN’s most visible hard journalist just accidentally slip into third-rate punditry? It looks that way. And it probably wasn’t by accident, actually as a veteran Acosta watcher, we have noticed a theme here. Here is a greatest hits real:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I think we saw the President ‘s true colors today, and I’m not sure they were red, white, and blue.

He is ushering in a cold war, a return to the cold war between Washington and Havana. Not just seeing a press conference go off the rails or jumped the tracks. You are watching a presidency go off the rails and jumped the tracks. At times, this White House has an unhealthy fixation on what I call the 3MS, the Mexicans, the Muslims, and the media.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Count the cliches and all of those statements. There is a lot more of that, but you get the point. Keep in mind that as of this morning, Jim Acosta was still listed at CNN senior White House correspondent. Now, that is a different job from being a talking head on one of those panel shows with 19 guests. All of them minor political consultants. At least, it’s supposed to be a different job. Is Jeff Zucker watching any of this?

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor