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CNN faces backlash for hosting "ugly spectacle" town hall with former President Trump
CNN criticized for hosting "ugly spectacle" town hall with ex-president Trump, spewing falsehoods & attacking critics, including E. Jean Carroll.
CNN is under fire for hosting a town hall with former president Donald Trump that Vanity Fair called an "ugly spectacle." The event, which was moderated by Kaitlan Collins, saw Trump spewing out falsehoods and attacking his critics, including writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he was found liable for defaming.
Trump has not appeared on CNN in years, and the town hall was the network’s idea, and Licht had taken an especially hands-on role in its preparation, according to Politico.
The mood after the town hall was reportedly “absolutely the lowest it’s been in the Licht tenure,” a CNN journalist told Vanity Fair. Trump's appearance on CNN was his first in years.
Despite the backlash, Licht defended the town hall, noting that the audience represented a large swath of America. He also pointed out that the media cannot ignore Trump or his supporters, saying, "The mistake the media made in the past is ignoring that they exist.”
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However, Vanity Fair argues that CNN made a mistake by treating Trump like any other candidate. The magazine suggests that the former president spewed out too many falsehoods for any moderator to catch them all. While many gave Collins credit for her performance, former Obama communications director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted, "this is a gushing geyser of disinformation that cannot be fact-checked in real-time.”
Of course, this isn't the first time Collins has clashed with Trump. As a White House correspondent for CNN, she was frequently banned from press conferences and called "fake news" by the former president. Despite this, she stood her ground during the town hall, asking tough questions and attempting to fact-check Trump in real-time.
Vanity Fair's assessment of the town hall is decidedly negative. The magazine argues that CNN's approach of holding every candidate accountable for their words simply doesn't work when dealing with someone like Trump, who is willing to lie and smear his opponents. While the network may have wanted to reset its relationship with the former president, it seems that the town hall only served to reinforce the divisions between Trump supporters and his opponents.
