McEnany: Science is on our side for reopening schools
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on fully reopening U.S. schools.
CNN's chief anti-Trump reporter Jim Acosta was blasted on social media over a tweet that quoted White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany out of context.
During Thursday's briefing, McEnany reiterated President Trump's strong stance on wanting children to be going back to school in the fall amid a fiery debate about how educators can prevent the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
"The science should not stand in the way of this, but as Dr. Scott Atlas said -- I thought this was a good quote, 'Of course, we can do it. Everyone else in the Western world, our peer nations are doing it. We are the outlier here,'" McEnany said, quoting the former Stanford Medical Center neurology chief.
"The science is very clear on this. For example, you look at the JAMA pediatric study of 46 pediatric hospitals in North America that said the risk of critical illness from COVID is far less for children than the seasonal flu. The science is on our side here. We encourage localities and states to just simply follow the science. Open our schools," she continued.
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However, Acosta tweeted about what McEnany said by suggesting she was anti-science.
"The White House Press Secretary on Trump's push to reopen schools: 'The science should not stand in the way of this,'" the liberal reporter tweeted.
Acosta later added, "McEnany went on to say 'the science is on our side here.'"
However, his first tweet went on to get 30,000 retweets while his follow-up tweet that provided the much-needed context received less than 700. Among those who shared the out-of-context tweet were Democratic lawmakers Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. David Cicilline, as well as several of his CNN colleagues.
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CNN's chief White House correspondent was hit with major backlash.
"Classic stuff here. Acosta tweets half of one quote without context & gets nearly 20,000 retweets. Had plenty of room to add the full context in the original comment by McEnany stating “the science is on our side here.” Waits 10 minutes before writing a second tweet, gets 450 RTs," The Hill media reporter Joe Concha wrote.
"This isn’t journalism. It’s a dishonest fragment used to whip up animosity, rather than inform," Daily Caller editor Vince Coglianese tweeted.
"Why are you misleading your followers?" Reagan Battalion asked
Even Acosta's own colleague Jake Tapper weighed in on the distorted quote that was being shared, urging everyone to "read the ENTIRE McEnany comment."
"I'm not taking a position on the matter but be fair," the CNN anchor wrote.
Acosta wasn't the only journalist who shared the incomplete quote from the White House press secretary. CBS White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, NBC News reporter Josh Lederman, The Guardian and The Washington Post all similarly omitted her actual support of the science.
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McEnany blasted the slanted reporting.
"Case Study in Media Bias," McEnany wrote. "I said: 'The science is very clear on this...the science is on our side here. We encourage our localities & states to just simply follow the science. Open our schools.' But leave it to the media to deceptively suggest I was making the opposite point!"