U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a commercial break during a live one-hour NBC News town hall forum with a group of Florida voters in Miami, Florida, U.S., October 15, 2020.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
When Chris Licht took over as CNN’s chief executive last year, he made a promise to viewers.
“The analogy I love to use is some people like rain, some people don’t like rain. We should give space to that. But we will not have someone who comes on and says it’s not raining,” Licht said in an October interview with CNBC.
Licht was talking about CNN guests and panelists pushing disinformation, such as election fraud lies, when he made the comment.
On Wednesday, CNN will welcome former President Donald Trump to participate in a town hall. This seems to be a case of Licht bending his own rules. Clearly, CNN has different standards for Trump than it does spokespeople for Trump that cycle through cable news networks as daily guests.
Trump has repeatedly made false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Hundreds of his supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to prevent Congress from confirming Joe Biden’s victory after Trump told them in a speech “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
CNN vowed to hold Trump accountable during the town hall.
“President Trump is the Republican frontrunner, and our job despite his unique circumstances is to do what we do best,” a CNN spokesperson said. “Ask tough questions, follow up, and hold him accountable to give voters the information they need to sort through their choices.”
Inviting Trump to CNN
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and board member John Malone have been open about their beliefs that CNN should be less of an “advocacy network” and more of a down-the-middle news network than what they considered it to be when Jeff Zucker was in charge during Trump’s years as president.
“He should be,” Zaslav said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” when he was asked about…
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