Chris Licht defends Trump town hall and tells CNN staffers to get on board with covering him
CNN chief Chris Licht laid down the law with staff on Thursday morning’s editorial call after widespread complaints about the network hosting Donald Trump’s town hall last night.
Staffers such as media reporter Oliver Darcy were despondent over the event, calling it a “spectacular of lies” and furious with Licht for the decision. Some unnamed employees told outlets like Rolling Stone that it was a “f*****g shame” so intense was their distaste for Light and the decision.
Unaffected by their anger, Light praised moderator Kaitlan Collins, warning detractors: “You don’t have to like the former president’s answers, but you can’t say we didn’t understand them.
While we may all have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping, that was also an important part of the story because the people in that audience represent a large part of America.
The mistake the media has made in the past is to ignore that those people exist, just as you can’t ignore that President Trump exists.
“I believe absolutely unequivocally that America has been very well served by what we did last night.”
CNN boss Chris Licht took over last year and vowed to clear the network of its prejudices. He has been criticized for giving Trump a platform
Donald Trump’s town hall on CNN last night. According to her colleagues, who are now furious with bosses, moderator Kaitlan Collins was given ‘an impossible task’
“Covering Trump is tricky and messy and will continue to be messy and tricky, but it’s our job,” he said, according to former staffer Brian Stelter.
Licht took over from Jeff Zucker last year and has since vowed to cleanse the network of his left-wing biases.
CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy was furious with his network for putting on the event
He’s also on a ratings mission, having seen viewership plummet.
The ratings for last night’s town hall are not yet in.
The immediate reaction from the left was shock and disgust, both at Trump’s comments and at CNN for giving him a platform.
Democrats and pundits like AOC and Joy Behar shared their disgust almost immediately.
CNN’s own reporter, Oliver Darcy, wrote, “It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday night.
“Trump lied about the 2020 election. He took no responsibility for the January 6 riot that was triggered by those very lies. And he mocked E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault charges, for which a jury found him liable on Tuesday.
And CNN aired it all. It went on and on. It felt like 2016 again,” Darcy wrote.
He said Licht, who took over from Jeff Zucker last year and pledged to purge the network of his notorious bias, was now facing “a storm of criticism — both internal and external.”
How Licht and other CNN executives handle the criticism in the coming days and weeks will be crucial.
“A spectacle of lies,” Darcy characterized the event in his Reliable Sources newsletter
Other critics included CNBC’s Alex Sherman. Brian Stelter, the former CNN media reporter, also agreed
Slate Magazine called it a “disaster” and berated CNN for giving Trump a full hour
“Will they defend what happened at Saint Anselm College? Or will they apologize?’ asked Darcy.
His newsletter contained a long list of critical tweets from reporters and excerpts from reports criticizing the decision to platform Trump.
Siva Vaidhyanathan of The Guardian argued that he should never have been given such a platform.
Before the event even took place, he said, “The mainstream American news media seems poised to treat both candidates as if they were viable, reasonable representatives of the traditions their political parties have come to symbolize.
“It’s like they haven’t learned anything.”
Slate magazine called the event a “disaster.”
“He … happens to be the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, which was all it took CNN to literally ignore everything else and give Trump a full hour live Wednesday night as part of a breathtakingly ill-conceived” town hall” with voters from New Hampshire.
The discussion, poorly moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, was simultaneously a flashback to the bad old days of the Trump presidency, a frustrating preview of what we can likely expect in the next 18 months, and a conclusive repudiation of the doomed CNN CEO Chris Licht. plan to restore the network by tacking to the imaginary center,” journalist Justin Peters wrote.
Trump and Collins floundered onstage, with the former president labeling her an ‘annoying person’
Collins tried to control Trump in real time. The audience consisted mainly of his own supporters
CNBC’s Alex Sherman also berated Licht for giving Trump a platform.
CNN CEO Chris Licht said he wouldn’t allow anyone on his network who said it was raining when it wasn’t.
“But he’s let someone in now who says it’s raining when it’s not raining, and he’s added hundreds of people to applaud when he does.”
CNN defended the decision and Collins last night.
Tonight Kaitlan Collins gave an example of what it means to be a world-class journalist. She asked hard, honest and revealing questions.
“And she tracked and monitored President Trump in real time to provide voters with critical information about his views as he runs as the Republican frontrunner in the 2024 election.”
“That’s CNN’s role and responsibility: getting answers and holding the powerful accountable,” a network spokesperson said.
CNN’s ratings have plummeted since last year. In March, viewership in prime-time hours dropped 61 percent.