MS NOW on SnapStream One of the greatest things about living in America is our guaranteed freedom of speech and the press, but the government can fire or otherwise discipline officials who leak classified information to the press without violating the First Amendment. But, according to failed former CNN anchor Jim Acosta and MS NOW’s Ali Velshi on Thursday’s episode of The 11th Hour, the Trump administration’s efforts to identify leaks is horribly authoritarian and Putin-like.If “your only job were to listen to what the White House press secretary says and report that to the people, that would be a little hollow, right? That would be the kind of thing that they do in authoritarian countries,” Velshi said, ignoring that for almost four years under Biden, that’s exactly what his network did for questions about the president’s health.“Imagine if those things [Trump says] were reported as true,” Acosta agreed.On the contrary, imagine if nothing the President said was ‘reported as true.’ That wouldn’t be journalism, either.“Donald Trump needs to understand he is not Vladimir Putin and this is not Russia,” Acosta continued. “And now, we're seeing journalists being jailed.”No journalists have been imprisoned during Trump’s administration. Acosta repeated this line several times, and Velshi never once asked him to name a journalist that Trump had supposedly jailed. Maybe he's thinking about Don Lemon getting arrested for a church invasion, but he's roaming free.Another fascist thing the White House does, according to Acosta? They’re “in charge of who gets to sit where in the briefing room, and who gets to go on Air Force One.”Trump’s press team allowed smaller media companies to have reporters in the briefing room, but to Acosta, that was a bad thing. Additionally, they don’t let the general public ride on the President’s plane. If that doesn’t scream Nazi, Acosta doesn’t know what does.And then, of course, Acosta made it about himself and his "narcissistic" book: I remember being out on the campaign trail in 2016 and Trump calling us all sorts of things, liars and scum. . . when I had my press pass taken away in 2018 - Ali, you mentioned my book, I mean, I wrote that seven or eight years ago - and when my press pass was taken away, it was a Trump-appointed judge who made sure I got it back.Acosta did not mention that his story started when he refused to stop hogging the microphone while an intern tried to move on to the next reporter. He also mentioned the fight to delicense ABC, which the MRC has been supporting.But missing from Acosta and Velshi’s lamentations was the actual target of these subpoenas. Trump’s administration isn’t interested in prosecuting journalists just for doing their jobs. They’re going after leakers who jeopardize national security by talking to the press about security concerns around the president himself. This kind of leak is different from something like Watergate. Mark Felt never told his media contacts about a potential security flaw that could lead to Nixon’s physical harm. But to Acosta, it always has to be about him and his industry:I think they do want to put reporters, more reporters in jail, and they want to make it very difficult for news organizations to tell the truth in this country. I experienced that firsthand. But there's something sadistic about it - there's a sadism in this and, that Donald Trump seems, and his people seem to really get off on grinding down the free press in this country. And Ali, this is - I mean, look what's taking place in a day from now. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, they're going to try to do another correspondents' dinner in Washington, D.C., and news organizations are going to be getting together with the president of the United States, who has been going after the free press with a meat ax over the last ten years. This is no time to be clinking glasses with the people who would put this industry out of business.Contrary to what Acosta would have people believe, journalists are not always the main character in every story.The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:MS NOW's The 11th Hour7/23/2611:45:29 p.m. Eastern ALI VELSHI: Joining me now is Jim Acosta, independent journalist and host of The Jim Acosta Show on Substack. He's the former CNN chief White House correspondent. He's the author of the New York Times best seller, The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America, which is an important title for what we're talking about.  Jim, my friend, good to see you. Thanks for joining us tonight.JIM ACOSTA: Good to see you, Ali.VELSHI: Let's talk about this for a second. Journalists have sources, right? If your only job, as you were the chief White House correspondent, if your only job were to listen to what the White House Press Secretary says and report that to the people, that would be a little hollow, right? That would be the kind of thing that they do in authoritarian countries.  Your job is to take that information, use your sources, find out whether that information is true or not true. Sources are what we rely on as journalists.ACOSTA: Yeah, no question about it.  I mean, Donald Trump needs to understand he is not Vladimir Putin and this is not Russia.  And I think what they're trying to do over at the Justice Department, what they're trying to do inside the administration, is put a chilling effect on journalists in Washington and around the country so they can't do their job anymore.  I mean, look at the headlines tonight, the Pentagon trying to artificially lower the number of dead in the war in Iran or Donald Trump's, you know, crazy election conspiracy theory speech that he gave last week.  Imagine if those things were reported as true, as reality. We just can't have that kind of situation in this country. You have to have journalists who are able to do the job.  And, Ali, I worry about the journey that we've been over on over the last ten years. I remember being out on the campaign trail in 2016 and Trump calling us all sorts of things, liars and scum, and then it became fake news and the enemy of the people.  And now we're seeing journalists being jailed. We're seeing journalists having their records sought after, their mother's phone records being sought after, the White House in charge of who gets to sit where in the briefing room, and who gets to go on Air Force One.And it's spiraling downward quickly. And, you know, when I had my press pass taken away in 2018 - Ali, you mentioned my book, I mean, I wrote that seven or eight years ago - and when my press pass was taken away, it was a Trump-appointed judge who made sure I got it back. VELSHI: Yeah.ACOSTA: Now we have Trump-appointed judges when they go through their confirmation hearings, can't even say whether or not Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.  And so, you can only imagine a scenario where this continues to get worse.VELSHI: So let's talk about - so, in this particular case in the New York Times, it's about whether there was security issues on the plane.  It does feel like once you start subpoenaing people's records and phone records - and phone records of your family and things like that, I don't know how much of that is about getting to the truth and getting to the source.  Some of it is about punishing the journalists. Some of it is about putting a chill on leakers, and some of it's straight out intimidation, because once you start getting involved in a federal investigation as a journalist, you then have to get a lawyer who can handle the federal investigation. If you work for a major corporation, hopefully they'll pay for it. But you're an independent journalist, so that starts happening to you.  It just creates a system in which everybody says, “maybe I should stay out of the way of this government.”ACOSTA: Yes, that's exactly right. And it's not just the reporters who feel the pressure. It's the reporters' bosses. It's the companies that own those news outlets. They don't want to get in the crosshairs of this administration.  Look what's happening right now with ABC and Brendan Carr over at the FCC. They're threatening the licenses of ABC stations around this country. Donald Trump, just a week ago was threatening the licenses for ABC and NBC stations in this country. And so this certainly has a chilling effect.  And, you know, this is - it's incumbent upon these news organizations to stand tough. They have to stand up to this administration.  You mentioned the Pentagon Papers. Imagine a world in which Katharine Graham and the Washington Post did not stand up --  VELSHI: Yeah. ACOSTA: --to the Nixon administration. Imagine a world where the New York Times did not stand up to the Nixon administration.  The truth is more important than all of that.  Look at what we've been going through since Donald Trump came into office in this second administration. It's been a pretty dark and disturbing place.  Ali, how do we get out of this corn maze? How do we get out of this hall of mirrors without the free press, shining lights in dark corners? It's the only way out of this.(...) 11:50:31 p.m. VELSHI: But ultimately, people could go to jail for this.ACOSTA: Right. And look at the judge in this New York Times case, the judge, I believe, said to the government, you know, "going after reporters is not the first thing you do. It's the last thing you do. And the circumstances have to be pretty dire for you to even go down that road." And - but I think there's more going on here. And I agree with Marty 100 percent. I think they do want to put reporters, more reporters in jail, and they want to make it very difficult for news organizations to tell the truth in this country. I experienced that firsthand.  But there's something sadistic about it - there's a sadism in this and, in that Donald Trump seems, and his people seem to really get off on grinding down the free press in this country.  And Ali, this is - I mean, look what's taking place in a day from now. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, they're going to try to do another correspondents' dinner in Washington, D.C., and news organizations are going to be getting together with the president of the United States, who has been going after the free press with a meat ax over the last ten years.  This is no time to be clinking glasses with the people who would put this industry out of business. It is a time to stand up and stand tough.  And I hope that my colleagues in the press who are at that dinner the other night, that they send a powerful message to the president that this First Amendment is not going anywhere. He is not Vladimir Putin, and this is not Russia. VELSHI: Jim, it's good to see you, my friend. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate your time, as always.