CNN won big ratings for its controversial town hall with former President Trump, but it also outraged some of its own talent for essentially delivering its platform to the GOP presidential front-runner and his supporters for an hour.
More than 3 million people watched Wednesday night’s town hall, early data from Nielsen Media Research showed, representing a more than 300 percent increase from a typical weeknight at 8 p.m. evening for a network that consistently runs behind Fox News and MSNBC.
However, CNN also found itself at the center of a political and media controversy after Trump pushed moderator Kaitlan Collins’ efforts to verify a series of false statements she made to a crowd vocally supporting the republican
“It was a complete debacle and I’ve never been more embarrassed to work at CNN,” a prominent on-air talent at the network told The Hill on Thursday. “I don’t think anyone got it right. This is a complete failure of business and management. They should have anticipated how out of control Trump would be … to think he would act more presidential in this type of scenario is just naive to galactic scale”.
During the event, Trump repeated his false claims about his loss in the 2020 election, retracted allegations of sexual misconduct and repeatedly interrupted Collins, at one point referring to her as “a nasty person “.
He said he never met E. Jean Carroll, the woman who a day earlier won a civil lawsuit in New York accusing Trump of sexual abuse and defamation.
During a particularly chilling moment, the crowd in the auditorium of St. Anselm College in New Hampshire cried, clapped and laughed as Trump mocked Carroll over his rape allegations at a New York department store in 1997.
“This woman, I don’t know her. I never met her. I have no idea who she is,” Trump said.
Democratic lawmakers slammed CNN for putting Trump on the air, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) calling the town hall “a disservice to democracy, but also a major disservice to women , survivors and people who depend on reproduction”. rights”.
“CNN allowing sexual assault to be treated as a joke to an audience that applauds is egregious,” he said. “It’s not about Trump at this point, we know him. It’s about the programming.”
CNN reporter Oliver Darcy in his newsletter noted that the network’s new CEO, Chris Licht, “faced a fury of criticism, both internally and externally over the event.”
“And CNN aired it all. It went on and on. It was like 2016 all over again. It was Trump’s bewildered social media feed brought to life on stage,” the media critic wrote from your own network. “And Collins was put in an awkward position, given that the town hall was held in front of a Republican audience that cheered Trump, lending a sense of unwelcome endorsement of his shameful antics.”
CNN defended the town hall after its conclusion, promoting Collins’ work.
“Tonight, Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist,” the network said in a statement Wednesday night in defense of its star anchor.
“She asked tough, fair and revealing questions. And she tracked and fact-checked President Trump in real time to equip voters with crucial information about his positions as he entered the 2024 election as the Republican front-runner.” , the statement continues. “That’s CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful accountable.”
Both Wednesday night and Thursday, however, much of the criticism on CNN was that the format of the town hall gave little opportunity for Collins or anyone else to check Trump or hold him to account.
“I’m not sure I made enough news to counterbalance just giving Trump a perch to lie with a laugh track,” said another network employee.
Much attention was paid to the town hall hearing on Thursday, which was overwhelmingly supportive of Trump.
“Looks like we got some of these people from a MAGA rally,” the on-air talent said.
CNN clarified Thursday that it had selected the audience through community, student politics and government, faith groups, as well as agricultural and educational organizations. The school and campaign also invited guests, the network said.
Trump, a day before the event, said CNN had made his campaign “an offer [he] he could not refuse”, so he agreed to participate in the council.
In response, a representative for the network told The Hill, “we offered him the opportunity to connect with New Hampshire voters through a live televised CNN Town Hall event.”
Late Thursday, host Anderson Cooper defended his network’s decision to host the event with Trump during an opening monologue on his prime-time show, though he said he “understands the anger “, directed at CNN.
“You have every right to be outraged and angry and never watch this network again,” Cooper said. “But you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?”
The town hall comes at an important time for the network, as Licht completes a year on the job, which has been spent in part trying to rehabilitate the channel’s reputation with conservatives and other critics amid mounting ratings pressures and deficits budgetary
Cable news ratings have declined steadily since Trump’s first term, but they have hit CNN the hardest. The company also saw its profits fall below $1 billion for the first time since 2016 last year, while Licht administered widespread layoffs to its editorial staff in his first six months on the job.
Licht, a former “Morning Joe” showrunner who most recently worked as an executive producer on CBS’ “The Late Show,” was hired last year by David Zaslav, the media mogul who heads the new company chain parent WarnerBros. discovery
Zaslav last week defended the company’s decision to host a town hall with Trump, saying “we need to hear both voices” and noting that the company’s investors expect a “big political season” to come .
“This is what you see. Republicans are on the air on CNN. Democrats are on the air. All voices need to be heard on CNN,” Zaslav said during an appearance on CNBC.
At the same time, CNN’s executive director has similarly dismissed pundits and speculation that CNN is dragging CNN to the center or trying to appease Trump supporters.
During the network’s morning editorial call Thursday, Licht acknowledged the criticism the network has faced this week, saying covering Trump can be “complicated and messy,” adding, “What we did last night served a lot well in the United States.”
But some CNN staffers aren’t buying that line of thinking.
“I really wonder what his is [Licht] The private view is how this all went,” another network employee said. “There has to be some self-awareness that this was a big piece of shit.”
