Jim Acosta

Jim Acosta: biography

Jim Acosta is a scandalous American reporter currently serving for CNN. In his life, he has changed a lot of places of work but eventually settled down with CNN. Working there, he has advanced to the official representative of the channel in White House and been involved in heated debates with Donald Trump and his advisors as Acosta doesn’t support their ideas. But why does he attract so much attention and has lots of haters? Let’s know right now!

Childhood and youth

Speaking about Acosta’s parents; his dad is a refugee – he left his motherland – Cuba – when he was 11. He immigrated because of a political situation – the boy moved to the United States just several days before the October Crisis of 1962. As for Jim Acosta’s mom, she was of a mixed ethnicity having Irish and Czech roots. His aunt named Anabel was also a refugee. She had moved to the U.S. before Acosta’s father did so.

She returned to Cuba to help Acosta’s dad immigrate. Having received his high school diploma in 1989, Acosta decided to study politics at college, graduating in 1993. As a school student, he contributed to WXJM, the radio hub ruled by young people. Besides, he was hired by WSVA – a local radio hub.

Media career

After completing his education, Acosta advanced to a new stage of his life – he started doing journalism professionally. So, his first job was at WMAL. Several years later, he left this place and started dedicating himself to television – he was hired by WTTG-TV. The following year, he got the position of a reporter at WBIR-TV. Acosta held the job until 1998.

The same year Acosta went to serve as a reporter for KTVT-TV and remained the job until 2000. In 2000 the journalist was hired as a reporter for WBBM-TV based in Chicago. Around that time, Jim Acosta was seen working as a CBS News’ correspondent.

As a journalist, Acosta has never been away from the world of politics. So, in 2004 he was involved in John Kerry’s presidential campaign, notified the publicity of the most important events. Spring 2007 brought Jim a job in CNN. Serving there, Acosta was involved in a confrontation between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton, hosted Ballot Bowl – a program about politics – and American Morning.

At the beginning of 2012, the journalist was named official American journalist specializing in politics by CNN. So, he notified people of Mitt Romney’s pre-election campaign in 2012. Acosta is also known for his bold statement about ISIS – the terrorists. So, attending a news conference in fall 2015, the journalist asked Barack Obama why ‘he didn’t take out these bastards.’ In his turn, Obama responded they had to stick to a temperate strategy when it came to fighting against terrorism for the avoidance of complicating the situation.

In spring 2016 Acosta accompanied Obama while traveling to Cuba, Havana. Acosta’s dad warned him he had a risk to be put in prison. However, it never happened, but the tour was unbelievable for the journalist. So, he met relatives he had never seen before and visited his dad’s house.

He also took part in the official event, advising Raúl Castro, the President in Cuba, pay more attention to human rights in the country.

In January 2018, Acosta was pleased by advancing to the seat of main White House media person.

Serving for CNN, the journalist has been mixed up with several scandals with Donald Trump. So, attending the 2016 news conference, Acosta asked the President if he was qualified enough to solve important political problems. Instead of a response, Trump called him "a real beauty."

One more controversy happened in January 2017. As a press conference guest, Jim intended to ask Donald Trump about the Russian Federation. In his turn, Trump ignored the journalist again, claiming CNN was "fake news." Interestingly, famous YouTuber Mark Dice supports Trump – in his videos, he ridicules CNN for their ‘false news’.

After questioning the RAISE Act supported by Trump, Acosta got a reputation of a main antagonist against the President.

Acosta was involved in a confrontation against the President again in November 2017 press conference. So, the reporter asked him about new immigration politics and Trump’s racist views. Donald Trump named him a rough and ill-mannered person. Shortly after, Acosta was suspended from his work after an incident when he was accused of reportedly sexually assaulting a young woman. His colleagues named the suspension ‘an unfair punishment for Acosta’s provocative questions.’

The following day the video depicting Acosta’s physical blow on the woman was uploaded to the Internet. It was specially edited to prove his fault. However, White House claimed the video was original.

As a result, Jim Acosta filed a civil suit against White House and reached cancelation of suspension.

Besides Trump, Acosta has had a conflict with Sean Spicer – once in an interview he called Spicer a ‘useless person.’

Acosta’s net worth has been evaluated at $6 million.

Personal life

The journalist had a wife named Sharon Mobley Stow. They had been together for more than 20 years before separating in 2017. The spouses are parents for a daughter and a son. According to the news, Acosta had cheated on the woman.

Jim Acosta has decided to share his knowledge in politics and political views with the publicity and released a book in 2019. The journalist shares with his readers the current situation in White House, his opinion about future of the United States. The book is available to buy on Amazon.

There are rumors Jim Acosta is related to Alexander Acosta (famous for his scandal with Jeffrey Epstein). However, the two are not relatives.

Acosta’s haters have created a Twitter account ‘Dear Diary, it’s me, Jim Acosta’ to humiliate the journalist. There its creators publish ridiculous tweets in the form of communicating with one’s private diary.

In April 2019 the reporter received “Truth to Power” award for his dedication to journalism.