As we reported earlier this week, former President Donald Trump dominated during the CNN town hall, with the audience loving his responses. CNN host Kaitlan Collins made herself look silly as she kept trying to interrupt and impose her [or CNN’s opinion] on all the questions.
Some might have doubted that going on CNN was a good idea, as it was a guarantee that he wouldn’t get a fair shake. But it did show that he was fearless and willing to take on all challenges. It also showed his good responses on policy, even though they kept trying to talk about 2020 and Jan. 6, as well as the stark contrast between those good policies and the bad policies of Joe Biden that have been decimating the country.
But it had a bonus into the bargain: it now seems to have thrown CNN into chaos as their viewers are furious with them for having Trump on and they’re scrambling to justify themselves to the few people they have left as an audience. We saw this with Anderson Cooper as he found himself trying to justify CNN to the traumatized Trump-haters. “You have every right to be outraged and angry and never watch this network again. But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?”
Cooper spoke to the CNN audience as if they were children. His response again revealed his deep bias as he praised his colleague, Kaitlan Collins, who performed badly, while emotionally attacking Trump and even the audience that CNN had at the town hall.
But that wasn’t the only meltdown and now CEO Chris Licht and other execs are reportedly ticked off.
Licht was upset with how CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy dealt with the town hall in his “Reliable Sources” newsletter on Wednesday night and appeared to join criticism of CNN. Licht is a little delusional himself since he supposedly thought Collins’ handling of the town hall was “masterful.” Licht allegedly called Darcy and his editor Jon Passantino on the carpet in a meeting with executives and scolded him saying that his commentary had to be “based on fact,” not emotion.
In the newsletter, Darcy claimed that Trump had “lied” and “CNN aired it all” and that Collins wasn’t able to do much to stop it.
The source said Licht received a “ton” of messages from CNN staffers appalled by Darcy’s newsletter, which emphasizes how CNN and Licht were facing tense backlash “internally” as well as externally.
The messages, according to the source, were like “what the f—.”
“I’m asking you to not be emotional,” the source paraphrased what Licht told Darcy at the meeting, adding that he wanted nonemotional coverage applied to all news outlets, not just CNN. [….]
Darcy was then told by CNN’s top brass “his coverage had been too emotional and [Licht] repeatedly stressed the importance of remaining dispassionate when covering the news, be it CNN or any other media organization.”
Darcy disputed the characterization according to one of the sources.
But afterward two sources who heard about the meeting described him as visibly shaken. ‘They put the fear of God into him,’ one source said,” Puck News’ Dylan Byers reported Friday.
Darcy took over the “Reliable Sources” newsletter from Brian Stelter after Stelter got the boot last year.
One has to think that’s weighing on his head after the scolding. Licht has made it clear he wants to be objective. I don’t think he’s done a particularly good job of enforcing that edict. But he’s been left with a lot of biased characters in the mix. So unless you dump them all and open up your mind, you’re not remaking the network into an objective news source. Darcy has to be wondering if he’s now next on the list to get the boot.
