Former CNN host Jim Acosta recently said NBC was the latest news outlet to ‘compromise itself’ for Donald Trump after the network’s parent company, Comcast, was revealed to have donated to the president’s planned White House ballroom.
During Acosta’s Halloween episode of his Substack live show, he said: ‘All of our major TV networks right now, they’re compromised in some fashion as the U.S. evolves or mutates into having a state-dominated TV system.
‘NBC is now the latest network to compromise itself. The parent company of NBC Comcast recently donated money to Trump’s ballroom.’
He went on to say ABC and CBS also paid ‘bribes’ to the president and that CBS has been ‘taken over by right-wing zealots.’
Acosta also said Fox News was ‘already state TV,’ and added that ‘you have a situation in this country that is starting to seem like state-dominated television in the United States, or at least state compromised television here in the United States.’
The $300 million bill for the planned ballroom was bankrolled by dozens of major companies, organizations and wealthy individuals. The White House released a list of those companies on October 23 after hosting a dinner to thank them the day before.
Comcast, of course, was on the list, as well as major tech, defense and financial companies such as Amazon, Palantir, Coinbase and Lockheed Martin.
The expensive renovation has been controversial because it is the first major change to the White House’s exterior since President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the East Wing, which traditionally houses the office of the first lady, in 1942.
During former CNN host Jim Acosta’s Halloween episode of his Substack live show, he said ‘NBC is now the latest network to compromise itself’ for the president
His statement came after it was revealed that NBC’s parent company, Comcast, donated to Trump’s planned White House ballroom renovation. Trump is seen here pointing at Acosta in 2018
The planned $300 million ballroom was bankrolled by dozens of major companies, organizations and wealthy individuals
It has also come off as ill-timed and insensitive to some as the government shutdown approaches record length and thousands of federal employees have been fired and hundreds of thousands more left without pay.
The list of ballroom donors was also slammed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Last week she said: ‘For every Avelo Airlines, for every Paul Weiss law firm, and all the other law firms that did corrupt deals with Trump, for every corporation – like our parent company for another hot minute, Comcast – that wants to pay for Trump to take a literal wrecking ball, excuse me, I mean an excavator to the White House,
‘There may be a cost to their bottom line when they do things against American values, against the public interest, because they want to please Trump or buy him off or profit somehow from his authoritarian overthrow of our democracy.’
The hosts of ‘Morning Joe’ made similar critiques. On the same day Maddow made her comments, Joe Scarborough said: ‘The president one week says, “We’re not going to touch the East Wing.” The next week, he destroys that half of the White House that has been home to such history.
‘No other president in our lifetime would have even thought about doing this just on instinct, so abruptly.’
Acosta made his comments about cable news becoming ‘compromised’ on his Substack live show because he left CNN in late January after the network wanted to move his show’s time slot.
The network’s chief executive officer, Mark Thompson, offered Acosta a 12am to 2am timeslot instead of the former host’s 10am slot. Acosta declined and went independent.
