Trump Was Awful. CNN Was Worse.
Here’s what Chris Licht said the day he took over at CNN: “Sadly, too many people have lost trust in the news media. I think we can be a beacon in regaining that trust by being an organization that exemplifies the best characteristics in journalism: fearlessly speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo, questioning ‘group-think’ and educating viewers and readers with straightforward facts and insightful commentary, while always being respectful of differing viewpoints. First and foremost, we should, and we will be advocates for truth.”
Well, I hope today some of his more alert employees are reminding him of those noble words, because the Donald Trump “town hall” was an absolute fiasco for journalism and democracy; quite plainly the worst non-Fox night of cable news in recent memory. This was a grotesque scramble for ratings and cash, a naked bid by CNN to get some of that flagging post-Tucker Fox News audience that’s out there up for grabs. “Newsmax?! OANN?! Who are these pipsqueaks,” Licht obviously sits around his office wondering as he conceives of some way for mighty CNN get a slice of that juicy pie.
People make mistakes and miscalculations in this world, all the time. But this isn’t one of those times. Licht and CNN knew exactly what they were doing. Cable news critics started to see signs of CNN’s rightward shift last fall—the departures of John Harwood and Brian Stelter serving as a distant early warning. Licht was reportedly behind the canning of Harwood, a terrific journalist with years of experience at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Harwood was no liberal polemicist. He was a reality-based journalist. That he couldn’t pass muster with Licht should have been, and was, a tip-off. Licht went on a “listening tour,” promising advertisers that his CNN would hear both sides. And it was well after January 6 that Licht has this brainstorm.
This town hall, then, was no miscalculation. CNN execs did not err by filling that audience with a bunch of MAGA shills who tittered at the idea of the former president committing an act of sexual abuse. They knew exactly what they were doing. As Warner Brothers/Discover CEO David Zaslav, who’s no less responsible for this disaster than Licht, said last week, they want those disaffected Fox viewers who question that network’s total commitment to Trump, the sort who were up in arms when Fox called Arizona (prematurely but correctly) for Joe Biden: “We’re happy he’s coming on there…This is a new CNN. I’m proud of CNN, we’re on a great journey and this country needs it.”
Read more: https://newrepublic.com/article/172655/trump-awful-cnn-licht-worse
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CNN did it for him. His crap is “normalized” once again.
It was designed to send a message, and that message is "don't fuck with us". Fuck Trump, the MAGAs, and all of his enablers. 
Just check the typical Trump supporter in 2015 to 2020 to today.
THEY ARE FUCKING KILLING US ON THE STREETS ALMOST WEEKLY NOW. Remember Charlottesville and how outraged everyone was? They are fucking doing that almost weekly now, with the most recent being that fascist in the Texas mall shooting.
And 30% of the population is more than enough to foment an insurrection and install a dictatorship. If a dictator had fucking majority support, they wouldn't need to overthrow the democratic process to seize power, now would they?
