The Lincoln Project strongly called out CNN and accused the network of an act of malpractice by normalizing Trump to chase Tucker Carlson’s viewers.
The Lincoln Project said in a statement to PoliticusUSA:
CNN gave Donald Trump a campaign kickoff celebration tonight. Chris Licht sold out CNN’s values to chase Tucker Carlson’s viewers in a desperate attempt to find lost ratings.
Tonight’s disaster must be a lesson that every other news organization on earth must learn: DO NOT NORMALIZE DONALD TRUMP. CNN gave Trump 90 minutes of uninterrupted air time to rewrite history and reset his own narrative. If democracy is to survive, then the media cannot follow CNN down the rabbit hole and treat Donald Trump like a ratings booster.
Tonight we saw the MAGA Trump Cult in full regalia. Trump spewed his greatest hits of election denying, wallowing in self pity, and told lie after lie, while CNN’s hand-picked audience fawned over every answer and even laughed at his version of the sexual abuse case that he lost. Trump and his MAGA followers live in a deranged world where they are only too happy to take our nation off a cliff.
To the other candidates in the GOP race, here’s a nickel of free advice: stop being afraid of Trump and tell it like it is. You could end his campaign now if any of you had some courage to say out loud what you are thinking, that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy and doesn’t belong anywhere near the Oval Office. Tonight showed that trying to be clever and cute will only lead to your loss.
This outlandish and shameful display could have been avoided and prevented. Trump is the most anti-democratic force this nation has seen for ages and we cannot afford four more years. He has called for crushing the press and throwing out the constitution. CNN’s malpractice cannot be repeated if our democracy is to survive. The stakes are simply too high.”
The Lincoln Project is a leading pro-democracy organization in the United States — dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defense of democracy.
The corporate media always rallies around itself. The Lincoln Project hit on the great unspoken. CNN gave Trump a platform to attack democracy and harm the country because they want Tucker Carlson’s viewers. Whether or not CNN’s ploy worked will be revealed when the ratings are released. However, Trump hasn’t been a legit ratings draw on cable news for years, so it would not be surprising if the viewership numbers are less than eye popping.
Corporate media will normalize Trump and allow him to attack democracy as long as they can make money off of it. The way to stop them is to make sure that they pay for Trump’s toxicity. Any media organization like CNN that climbs into bed with Trump needs to wear the Trump stink that they spread.
CNN doesn’t get to platform Trump and allow him to attack the country and spread his lies without consequences.
If the American people reject what CNN chose to do, other networks will see that Donald Trump is not worth the negative costs.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
