The Enemy of the People

A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth in America

By: Jim Acosta

Narrated by: Jim Acosta

Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

From CNN’s veteran Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta, an explosive, first-hand account of the dangers he faces reporting on the current White House while fighting on the front lines in President Trump’s war on truth.

In Mr. Trump’s campaign against what he calls “Fake News”, CNN Chief White House Correspondent, Jim Acosta, is public enemy number one. From the moment Mr. Trump announced his candidacy in 2015, he has attacked the media, calling journalists “the enemy of the people”.

Acosta presents a damning examination of bureaucratic dysfunction, deception, and the unprecedented threat the rhetoric Mr. Trump is directing has on our democracy. When the leader of the free world incites hate and violence, Acosta doesn’t back down, and he urges his fellow citizens to do the same.

At Mr. Trump’s most hated network, CNN, Acosta offers a never-before-reported account of what it’s like to be the President’s most hated correspondent. Acosta goes head-to-head with the White House, even after Trump supporters have threatened his life with words as well as physical violence.

From the hazy denials and accusations meant to discredit the Mueller investigation, to the president’s scurrilous tweets, Jim Acosta is in the eye of the storm while reporting live to millions of people across the world. After spending hundreds of hours with the revolving door of White House personnel, Acosta paints portraits of the personalities of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, Sean Spicer, Hope Hicks, Jared Kushner, and more. Acosta is tenacious and unyielding in his public battle to preserve the First Amendment and #RealNews. 

©2019 Jim Acosta (P)2019 HarperAudio

What it's like to be a reporter in the Trump era

If you wonder what it's like to be a journalist in the Trump mediasphere, listen to this book. Jim's storytelling flows nicely, and the book is full of anecdotes, many you will recognize from having seen them play out on TV. (Many times I felt myself saying, "oh yeah, I remember that" and then hearing the answers to things that were puzzling at the time.)

Major takeaway: the White House press corps are under immense pressure during this administration. Trump himself has a push-pull relationship with mainstream media, because although he says he hates them, he can't live without seeing his name out there. His press staff end up being enforcers. Then, during his rallies, Trump invites violence against the media. These are scary times to be a journalist.

Jim has a nice voice, but I felt the narration was rushed. This was not unexpected, since he's used to saying as much as possible in a short time on TV. That was my only complaint about the book, but slowing the speed to .85 in Audible made it much easier to follow. (Great feature, Audible!)

I don't believe in 5 stars.

Before Trump's tantrums Jim Acosta to me was just another CNN reporter. This book most certainly from Acosta's POV is well-written, well-performed, and the story is captivating.

I loved the book and did not stop listening until done.

Keep on fightin' Jim.

Standing up to a bully!

This is a great read. I cannot imagine having a job where you ask questions every day and be at the recieving end of personal insults, threats to your life and lots of lies.

Thank you Jim for writing a great book about reporting in the age of trump and what as a society need to do about it. I look forward to the sequel.

I can't believe it's only been two years!

With the pace of today's modern news-cycle it's easy to forget all of the insanity that we have had to endure in just the first two years of this so-called presidency. I loved/hated being reminded that THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT NORMAL!

Trump"s discrediting the medi.

A very accurate review of the President's attempt to discredit the mainstream median at any time it does not promote him.

Entertaining!

Great narration! Not fake news but as I saw it as well! Good job Jim.

Eye opener

This is a gripping account of a standoff that could be missed in the heat of the high drama Trump administration. I don’t watch CNN much, having been alienated way back when Aaron Brown left and regularly watching only Fareed Zakaria. The press room dustup was all I knew of Acosta. He tells a story that provides an educational look at how the press functions in the tribal culture and how fraught this essential occupation has become.

If a book for comedy, Acosta is for you!

Ive never heard of such a self proclaimed hero, narcissistic individual than Acosta (He makes Trump seem modest!)
He makes sure to try and tell his side of a story , that's been caught on tape and occasionally tells bald faced lies.
He never lets a chance go by to remind you of his entitlement, and what he deserves, that no other reporter is entitled to.
Most other reporters know the different between "opportunity" and "right" but Acosta makes it clear, he does not know the difference and makes sure you believe it as well throughout the book.
I think in one chapter he refers to himself as "the real hero" in the book and that I literally laughed out-loud !!
If there were a demonstration, manual, or case study of why a journalist should have their press pass taken away - this is it!
Acosta shows that he has an agenda about 2 chapters in and is not a journalist, but an activist.
I thought it was just me but even NPR (a left leaning media source) grilled him harder than I am doing now.
Only the most radical left wing obtuse sycophants would like this book.

Honestly, I might go back and give this 2 or 3 star because it really was funny, and I'm not joking. Even if you are an objective middle of the road person, or right-leaning and can't stand this guy, just the pure fantasy that comes from this book will have you in stitches!!!

Welcome To Fake News Hell

Social media has allowed me to renew friendships made back in Jr High, and we’ve fallen back in lock step as if we were together yesterday instead of decades ago. It was a lovely surprise to learn that every one of my very good friends is a liberal, passionately so-a surprise, as we didn’t generally discuss politics much when we were 14. We’ve had many great discussions. Oddly, the one thing we don’t seem to agree about is the issue of the media. I’ve held growing concern-fear, even-that probably began with Dan Rather’s firing from CBS News because, basically, he had dared to report the truth. If we’re lucky enough, maybe Mr Rather will also write about his experience-I know he has courage and truth inside of him even after what he experienced, because I still have the pleasure of reading his honest thoughts on Twitter. Courage, indeed, as he used to say.

What happened to Dan Rather should never have happened, but it seemed to mark the beginning of the “moral majority “ exerting a heck of a lot of control over what, if any, information we received. Nothing has come close to the audacity of Trump, who was accustomed to dwelling within his own personal fiefdom, with yes men and women there for the grabbing-“let me just get a tic tac and I can do whatever I want to, and they’ll just LET me!”-that was his world, along with bellowing “You’re Fired!” every week on tv, forming a new pop culture phrase much like “where’s the beef”, “kiss my grits”, “I’m Comin’, Elizabeth!”, “I pity the fool”-and let’s not forget the Beverly Hillbillies “wooo-doggies!” The relevance of this observation is to explain that this man’s world, and his frame of reference, wasn’t one of politics or even necessarily ethics-it was a combination of entitlement through birth into a comfy situation financially, and the unreality of the life of a reality tv star-it’s a very different standard of behavior from politics, where a person is held, not less accountable than less privileged folk as he’s so accustomed to, but actually much MORE accountable than most-politicians are held to a higher standard behaviorally, they are expected to be transparent, honest, and to accept a higher level of scrutiny-and to be able to hold up to that scrutiny. To say that this man came to this place ill-prepared could be stated across the board but certainly specifically to navigating the media scrutiny that is very much part of this job description-and the subject of this book.

Where my friends and I disagree is on the subject of the media, specifically the quality/integrity of our information and making darned sure that the companies who hire reporters to perform this service don’t have a conflict of interest. Learning that a politician is attempting to purchase an interest in a news organization, or that he/she has personal friends who perform dubiously selfless and inexplicably expensive favors known as “catch and kill”-they outbid everyone for exclusive rights and bury one very scandalous story after another-this seems like a very sketchy business proposition- they ARE in the business of selling news stories to the public, and the more sensational, the bigger their viewership/sales/potential ad revenues-clearly, they HAVE to be benefiting in some way unless they just love to give away opportunities to increase sales/ratings-something is in it for them somewhere. What? It’s not merely an issue of being curious, which I am-it’s an issue of integrity of our news. Are we getting the whole story about this man, or are we being sold an image as incomplete as his hair and as fake as his tan? What are they hiding? And, there are at least two separate news outlets that engage in this practice. No fewer than two, but maybe more? How many more? What are they hiding?

As to Jim Acosta specifically, this is definitely not a man engaging in catch-and-kill-he’s the opposite of the two (at least) not-very credible news sources that we can’t trust because they have a personal agenda that happens to include buying and burying secrets. He fights very hard for us to get the answers to the hard questions, to hold this entitled celebrity president accountable, quite possibly for the very first time in his life-but that is the job he signed up for - transparency, accountability, and, ideally, honesty and integrity. Public interest over self promotion seems like a distant memory right now, making the integrity of the news all the more crucial.

Hearing Acosta tell his story about the struggle we’ve all witnessed, where, when asking a question that isn’t flattering-which definitely is part of the job HE signed up for -he’s been openly heckled and ridiculed by the president, pointing his finger and yelling “you are FAKE NEWS”, and, unbelievably, turning to the MAHAs (h8notgr8) and openly urging them to assault Acosta, promising to pay the legal bills incurred when they are arrested for assault! Finding himself practically as endangered here at home as he would have been covering an actual war in another country actively engaged in battle-pipe bombs mailed to him, death threats by MAHAs who very zealously seek to protect the honor of one who feels that he has something to hide and is completely entitled to do so-while issuing very strong statements holding everybody else accountable, demanding information/proof ranging from a birth certificate to the contents of emails, promising to be equally transparent “just as soon as the tax audit is completed”. Not sure what the hold up on the Einstein visa is-but there is ALWAYS a hold up-in the case of the “highest IQ of any president “, the SAT scores and college transcripts, there have been questions simply because there has been such excessive bragging, and there is quite a disconnect when reading his Tweets or listening to one of his speeches-a reasonable person DOES start to wonder because he definitely struggles and doesn’t seem to be particularly intellectually curious. Acosta speaks very passionately about the civility and ethics of another candidate for president that he had covered earlier on-being on the trail during an entire election campaign, developing admiration for and a relationship with that candidate-and how vastly different that experience was from this experience of traveling with Trump the entire time he was campaigning. Acosta was in no way being partisan or critical of either candidate during each campaign experience, just stating that there definitely was a difference, which would be understandable as they are two different personalities from two very different places. Being heckled, threatened, menaced by packs of angry aggressive MAHAs. afraid, and even blocked by Trump from doing his job, after covering his entire campaign and actually believing that he had developed a good relationship, Acosta was pretty shocked to be treated so poorly, which there’s no question that he was-for asking questions that this outrageously entitled and not particularly honest person didn’t feel any obligation to answer at all, when the fact is, he signed up for it-it simply comes with the job.

So, my friends and I disagree on the issue of the media, whether it matters who controls it , because that ownership can and apparently does affect the integrity of the news we end up getting-or not getting. They don’t think it matters one bit. I strongly disagree. Jim Acosta disagrees too. I admire reporters like him, and like Dan Rather, who push forward even when what should be safe-since theoretically we aren’t in a war zone-isn’t safe professionally and even, increasingly, physically. As time moves on and MAHAs continue to feed off of making America hate again, and we have this impulsive, rather reckless, inexperienced person who, at times, literally formulates policy via Twitter at 3 am after consulting with no one-watching him (probably) accidentally mistake and tweet the percentage of people who want him impeached as his approval rating, a staff member issuing a correction explaining the situation-and getting fired-then watching this impulsive person’s wheels start turning-we’re seeing this on Twitter-“I really need my approval rating to be higher-Dubbya really brought HIS ratings up by going to WAR! That’s it! I need to be a WAR PRESIDENT!” Then, as we watch, he starts openly musing-then lands on Iran. This person who got fraudulent draft deferments at least 4 times to avoid war himself feels no more empathy for other young men than Dubbya did when he got us into war with Iraq by lying to Congress about WMDs he knew the proof he claimed to have didn’t exist. Reporting about Dubbya’s own draft dodging was actually what Dan Rather got fired for-Dubbya’s family is top level wealth and power, and they silenced the flow of information on the entire thing. That was a really unfair thing to do to Mr. Rather, but it was at least as unfair to us because we deserved and even needed to know that we were sending our young people into situations THEY weren’t willing to endure themselves. Worse, it started the trend we are dealing with today of having our news cherry picked for us, giving us only the parts that serve the interests of those in power, instead of what’s true, bad or good. Jim Acosta was pretty much where the accusation of fake news started. Anything this administration doesn’t like is automatically dismissed as being fake news, reporters heckled and threatened with physical harm. This is a president who was particularly ill prepared for the job-that’s not a liberal or democratic POV, it’s just a fact-and this is important because this unexpected president seems to have a great deal to hide. His open adoration of some of the most heinous dictators known to man, and some evidence of his alliances with some of those people, possibly having financed him to some extent-these things aren’t merely a source of scandal and idle curiosity as they would likely be if he was still the reality tv shill-these are issues that can compromise our national security, our safety, what’s left of our integrity, and our freedom, things that aren’t just none of our business but are things that very much are our business and definitely are concerning. This book explains to bright people like my friends who want to dismiss the fact that these things really do matter-our free press is a fundamental thing that separates us from communist countries. I fail to understand why MAHAs are so up in arms about the concept of health care for all being *gasp*”socialist”! but being in lock step with communist Russia, our president possibly even owing them money for all we know-and definitely being extremely chummy with Russia, and a baffling number of close associates being chummy with them too-having man crushes on dictators of China, North Korea, and especially Russia-dancing so closely and covertly with communism doesn’t seem to upset the MAHAs, who seem to be chronically enraged by the smallest of things, yet these potentially huge things don’t seem to bother them at all. Regardless, the freedom to report ethically and truthfully used to set us apart from these other powerful but potentially dangerous nations. These days, we are apparently buying news stories and burying them so people don’t find out, we are cherry picking our truth and calling anything that’s inconvenient, from legit SAT scores to possible interference in our elections, “fake” or, if completely busted, “alternate facts”. Lies are only for OTHERS, never applying to this administration, it’s alternate facts at most. Our reporters not only deserve but we NEED them to be able to report the truth without fear. This book explains this very well.

Great info

Such important information we all need to be aware OF.... it was a great read I highly recommend it

Amazing Historical Document

I don’t think the American public know half of how the press is treated, and they chose to disbelieve what they do read.

An eyewitness account of Trump’s campaigns

The narrator speaks very quickly, presumably because as a TV journalist he has to get his story to fit into a limited time, so I had to listen at 75% speed, but admittedly I’m not tuned into USA voices or media.
It’s not a sinecure, being a political journalist in the USA at present! I assume everyone except Trump’s fanatical followers knows that 45 is amoral, untruthful, unreliable, grandiose, semi-literate and a bully - just to mention his least repulsive characteristics! - but, nevertheless, it’s reassuring to know that not all USA citizens fall for his patter, and that a few courageous souls will not be intimidated.
From outside USA, it looks like there are weaknesses in their constitution, which have allowed an unscrupulous amateur president to grab more power than a democracy should allow.

This book is a must!

Excellent description and analysis of the current threat to the freedom of the press, free speech and the truth!

Jim Acosta, despite attempts as discrediting him, remains a highly respected and effective journalist.

His courage, bravery, ethics and moral purpose shine through this book. Thank you for writing such a poignant message for our times.

A BETTER WRITER THAN NARRATOR

Acosta's experience of being a White House correspondent in the Trump era not only makes for some eye-opening stories, but provides insights into the important issue of the place of a free press in a democracy. As a writer, Acosta is very skilled at tying narrative to explanation to argument, so that the listener has the scene set for him/her, the background or 'hovering' issues painted in, and the pros & cons, risks and benefits set out. Context is provided, both historical and political, and there is just enough personal detail to anchor the author in his environment and role. But while Acosta may be excellent at giving a pithy oral summary as part of a live or pre-recorded broadcast, when narrating at length he is far less good. His voice is limited in range and tone - he has only about five 'notes', and rarely raises or lowers appropriately. He places emphasis on the wrong words, which in some cases alters the impact and import of what he's saying. He reads clearly enough, but everything is at the same pace, which at some moments is too brisk and 'efficient' for what is being described. It's as if he were reading to a schedule. The overall effect is to drain the narrative, making it lifeless and wearying to listen to. Yes, I'm glad I heard the book's story, but because of Acosta's narration I could not face listening to it again.

Brilliant . A warning to us all

In this era of fake news., Jim Acosta reminds us that speaking truth to power may no longer be possible if those in power are not listening. This book is a chilling account of the dangers and dilemmas that journalists face when doing their job. It is also a warning to us all to seek out the truth, and call out those who try to distort it for their own ends.

Inaudible..

Narrator talking so fast it’s incomprehensible in many sections.. a great pity as I expected a great story..

Disappointing

I expected analysis and insight on Trump administration - this book really only delivered the headlines, already well documented. The book seemed to be more about Jim Acosta than anything else - he was centre stage In every story. Largely an ego trip.
Narration was bombastic and grating.
I’ve listened to about half and cannot listen to any more - am returning.

Trumps lies and false statements

What a good listen. Frightening that the freedom of the press is under pressure and we need to ensure it keeps free in the U.K.

A great read!

Really loved this book. I’ve followed reporting Jim Acosta’s reporting of .the White House for some time. Very interesting to hear about what hors on behind the doors of a WH correspondent. I found it to be both informative & at time humorous. He really didn’t have an easy job following Trump’s administration. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

a great reporter

American Journalists have been so courageous over the last few years. democracy has held firm because of them