CNN executives are trying to spin the Trump town hall by saying that it served America well, but there are CNN employees who reportedly disagree.
Former CNNer Brian Stelter tweeted:
“While we all may have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping, that was also an important part of the story,” Licht adds, because those folks represent “a large swath of America,” and the media screwed up by missing that part of the story in 2015/16.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 11, 2023
Covering Trump is “tricky and messy,” Licht says, and it will “continue to be messy and tricky, but it’s our job.” He confidently says “America was served very well by what we did last night.” Many CNN employees strongly disagree.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 11, 2023
There is a load of problems in Licht’s comments. CNN’s job isn’t to make the news. It is to report the news. When CNN provides a forum to a political candidate, the network has a responsibility to its audience and the nation to not platform dangerous people and rhetoric.
The corporate media mistake of 2015/2016 was not ignoring Trump and his audience, but it was giving Trump billions of dollars worth of free campaign promotion with unlimited coverage. The dangers posed by Trump were ignored and downplayed by organizations like CNN, and they are repeating that mistake again in 2023/2024.
Licht agreed to a format with Trump that guaranteed that Kaitlin Collins would fail. She gave Trump too much room and allowed him to take over the stage. It is a tough task for any journalist to put guardrails on Trump, but Collins, who has been a rising star at CNN since 2017, looked inexperienced and overwhelmed by the setting.
The odds are that Trump would have never agreed to do the town hall if CNN would have selected Dana Bash, Jim Acosta, Jake Tapper, or Anderson Cooper to moderate. The Trump campaign wanted someone that would be cannon fodder, and that is the exact position that Licht put Collins in.
Chris Licht can spin this, but it was clear to anyone watching or listening that platforming a serial lying, Putin-loving, sexual abuser, coup plotter was a bad idea for the country.
Reportedly, some of CNN’s own employees understand this, but there is little that they can do to stop a corporate owner that wants to chase Fox News’s audience.
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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
