Hard Wire

Jim Acosta Signs Off From CNN

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And just like that, Jim Acosta is out. After nearly two decades at CNN—most of which were spent basking in the limelight of his self-appointed role as the grand inquisitor of Donald Trump—Acosta is officially exiting stage left. The reason? Well, let’s just say that being demoted to a graveyard shift didn’t exactly fit with the inflated sense of importance he’s cultivated over the years.

As RedState and others reported, CNN offered Acosta a midnight time slot earlier this month—a telltale sign that the network, which has been hemorrhaging credibility and viewership for years, no longer saw him as a centerpiece of their programming. And rather than suffer the indignity of a lonely, low-ratings existence in the dead of night, Acosta decided to walk.

If you’re looking for a little irony here, it’s this: the man who built his entire brand on supposedly “holding power to account” is leaving because he no longer has power to scream at.

Let’s not forget—Acosta didn’t report the news; he performed it. During Trump’s first term, he made a career out of grandstanding in the White House press room, treating briefings as his own personal audition reel. He wasn’t there to ask questions—he was there to debate the President, to challenge the Press Secretary, to make himself the story. And, of course, the liberal media swooned, showering him with book deals and prime-time interviews for his so-called "courage."

But the act never really worked without Trump.

Once Biden took office, Acosta was quietly shuffled out of the briefing room and into an anchor’s chair—first on weekends, then on weekday mornings. No more shouting matches. No more viral moments. No more media awards for being the face of The Resistance™. His purpose at CNN had all but evaporated. And when the network’s new leadership finally decided that he was dead weight, Acosta was left with a choice: take the demotion or walk away.

True to form, Acosta didn’t go quietly. His final monologue was everything you’d expect—dramatic, self-congratulatory, and stuffed with the same pompous rhetoric that made him insufferable in the first place.

He insisted that his defining career moment wasn’t battling Trump, but rather asking Raul Castro a tough question in 2016. (A convenient revision, given that the press treated the Obama-Cuba normalization as a diplomatic triumph at the time.) He lectured his audience about the “importance” of journalism, conveniently ignoring the fact that he spent years selectively “holding power to account” based on whether there was an R or D next to the name. And, of course, he ended on a Resistance™-style battle cry—urging people to “record a message” declaring that they “won’t give in to the lies” (as if he’s leading some kind of underground movement rather than just losing his CNN desk job).

Then, not even 24 hours after signing off, Acosta announced his next move: a Substack.

Yes, folks, just like so many other fallen liberal media heroes, he’s moving to the world of paid newsletters. Turns out, without Trump in the White House and without CNN footing the bill, the best path forward is convincing whatever audience he has left to fork over a few bucks a month for his “insights.” And while it remains to be seen how that’ll work out for him, one thing is for sure—he’s not done with the theatrics.

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