Former CNN anchor Jim Acosta appeared to acknowledge a point raised by TMZ founder Harvey Levin: that CNN’s coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to a media climate where open debate about the virus and public health policies was discouraged.
Levin, 75, steered the conversation toward the network’s pandemic-era reporting a little over ten minutes into Wednesday’s live-streamed episode of The Jim Acosta Show.
The TMZ host had joined Acosta to talk about his recent defense of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has faced accusations from several Republican lawmakers that he misled Congress over funding tied to overseas experiments that critics say may have played a role in the spread of COVID-19.
Fauci’s public guidance throughout the pandemic — including his comments on masks, social distancing, natural immunity and vaccines — has also come under renewed and intense scrutiny.
On Thursday, the Senate Homeland Security Committee voted 8-5 to hold the former federal health official in contempt of Congress after he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times during questioning last week about the government’s handling of the pandemic response.
“So look, um, again, I want to be real about this, personally. I did have some problems with the way Covid was handled,” Levin told Acosta, 55, shifting the discussion into more personal territory.
Levin pointed specifically to children, saying they were among those who “suffered” most under “some of the policies” put in place during the pandemic.
“And there was a degree of bullying,” the veteran entertainment journalist added. “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.
