In a recent conversation with TMZ’s Harvey Levin, former CNN heavyweight Jim Acosta seemed to acknowledge that his previous network may have contributed to stifling open debate around the COVID-19 pandemic.
The topic surfaced just over ten minutes into the live stream of Wednesday’s edition of The Jim Acosta Show, when Levin, age 75, brought up CNN’s coverage during the pandemic era.
The discussion unfolded as Levin appeared on the show defending Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci has been under fire from numerous Republican lawmakers who allege he misled Congress about U.S. government-funded research projects overseas that they say could have played a role in spreading the virus.
Dr. Fauci’s recommendations on masks, social distancing, natural immunity, and vaccinations remain hot topics of debate and are being closely examined by politicians and the public alike.
Adding to the controversy, the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday voted 8-5 to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress. This decision followed his invocation of the Fifth Amendment 111 times during intense questioning about the government’s handling of the pandemic response the prior week.
‘So look, um, again, I want to be real about this, personally. I did have some problems with the way Covid was handled,’ Levin suddenly told Acosta, 55.
He singled out children as a group that ‘suffered’ in particular from ‘some of the policies.’
‘And there was a degree of bullying,’ the tabloid journalist continued. ‘And, you know, you were at CNN at the time, and I got to say, you know, I watched you and CNN all the time.
TMZ founder Harvey Levin, 75, brought up CNN’s pandemic-era coverage a little more than 10 minutes into Wednesday’s Jim Acosta Show
‘And there was this element of if you disagreed with them, that you were somehow traitorous.’
Levin warned he wasn’t saying that ‘CNN did it’ knowingly.
‘But there was an atmosphere of that, that you couldn’t dare question, you know, where it came from and what precautions you should be taking – that you were somehow an idiot for doing it,’ he added.
‘And I think that intolerance was a problem.’
Levin then offered another disclaimer.
‘But, that said, um, I think, you know, to reduce Anthony Fauci to looking like a criminal is just abhorrent.’
Acosta, who had been listening in, answered: ‘Yeah, no. I agree with you.’
‘As for the coverage, you know, I think we were all trying to figure this out in real time,’ the former CNN Newsroom anchor added – citing ‘so much disinformation that was being spread’ at the time.
The diary entries were released as Fauci faces claims from Republicans that he signed off on funding for laboratories in China where workers manipulated viruses and misled Congress about his pandemic response. Fauci is seen here on CNN’s State of the Union in July 2021
He billed his longtime nemesis, then-president Donald Trump, as a primary purveyor.
‘Who was talking about how you could maybe inject disinfectants into your body or bring light bulbs into your body or whatever it was,’ Acosta said.
‘I remember when I was doing my show, I would just try to concentrate on having as many scientists and doctors and experts on as much as possible, just to make sure people were getting reliable information.’
He framed last week’s hearing as an example of ‘full-blown McCarthyism.’
Senator Rand Paul, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, relentlessly grilled Fauci for hours about the federal government’s activities before and during the virus’s initial spread.
The emergence of COVID-19 in late 2019 is the subject of two main theories – one being a laboratory-related incident, and the other natural zoonotic transmission, meaning it was transferred from animal to human.
Paul has repeatedly accused Fauci of downplaying the still-unproven theory that the virus emerged from a lab in Wuhan. Fauci has not been convicted of any crimes.