CNN Failed The Nation With Bogus ‘Town Hall’ Of Trump Cultists To Normalize Donald Trump. #BoycottCNN

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Update to CNN Helped To Normalize Donald Trump in 2016, It Will Do So Again On Wednesday. #BoycottCNN.

Even CNN’s Reliable Sources trashes CNN for its decision to host a bogus “town hall” (attendees were Trump cultists selected by CNN for the audience), and attempting to rehabilitate this sociopath and normalize Donald Trump’s pathological lying. Analysis: CNN faces harsh criticism after Trump unleashed a firehose of lies during its live town hall:

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It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening.

Kaitlan Collins is as tough and knowledgable of an interviewer as they come [I strongly disagree]. She fact-checked Trump throughout the 70-minute town hall [not so much.] Over and over and over again, she told him that the election was not stolen. That it was not rigged. That there was no evidence for the [election] lies he was disseminating on stage. [This was the only topic Collins fact checked Trump on. She let other topics he lied about go by without any challenge.]

“The election was not rigged, Mr. President,” Collins told Trump at one point during the event. “You cannot keep saying that all night long.” [Sure he can, and he did berceuse you gave him a platform to do it.]

Yet, he did. Trump frequently ignored or spoke over Collins throughout the evening as he unleashed a firehose of disinformation upon the country, which a sizable swath of the GOP continues to believe. A professional lie machine, Trump fired off falsehoods at a rapid clip while using his bluster to overwhelm Collins [not so tough, is she?], stealing command of the stage at some points of the town hall. [This is what a demagogue does.]

Trump lied about the 2020 election. He took no responsibility for the January 6 insurrection that those very lies incited. And he mocked E. Jean Carroll’s allegations of sexual assault, which a jury found him liable for on Tuesday.

E. Jean Carroll should file another defamation lawsuit for each time that he continues to defame her.

And CNN aired it all. On and on it went. It felt like 2016 all over again. It was Trump’s unhinged social media feed brought to life on stage. And Collins was put in an uncomfortable position, given the town hall was conducted in front of a Republican audience that applauded Trump, giving a sense of unintended endorsement to his shameful antics.

Once again, The Cruelty Is the Point. This is who the sadist MAGA/QAnon personality cult of Donald Trump are.

Yes, some news was made. The town hall spotlighted his insistence on continuing to peddle 2020 election lies. Additionally, he said the US should default on its debt if the White House does not agree to Republican spending cuts, refused to say whether he wants Ukraine or Russia to win the war [he is Putin’s puppet, of course he doesn’t], and declined to give a straight answer on abortion [national abortion ban.]

But for most of the night, the nation’s eyes were transfixed on Trump’s abuse of the platform that he was given. At one point, he even insulted Collins, calling her a “nasty person,” to which the crowd of New Hampshire Republican primary voters [Trump cultists] broke out in cheers.

“We don’t have enough time to fact-check every lie he told,” anchor Jake Tapper candidly said after the event wrapped up.

Trump’s team was, naturally, delighted with the result, according to reports. “Advisers to Trump are thrilled at how this is going so far for him,” The NYT’s Jonathan Swan reported. “They can’t believe he is getting an hour on CNN with an audience that cheers his every line and laughs at his every joke.”

Neither could anyone else.

While Collins is largely receiving praise for her relentless [sic] fact-checking of the former president, she was facing an impossible task. CNN and new network boss Chris Licht are facing a fury of criticism — both internally and externally over the event.

Here’s the thing: Kaitlan Collins and everyone else at CNN could have taken a stand against “new network boss Chris Licht” who is turning CNN into FOX Lite, and refused to host this bogus “town hall” of Trump sycophants. Not one of them did. There is no courage or journalistic integrity from the on-air personalities at CNN. Their pricey paychecks are more important to them.

How Licht and other CNN executives address the criticism in the coming days and weeks will be crucial. Will they defend what transpired at Saint Anselm College? Or will they express some regret?

For now, CNN is defending itself. [Pathetic.]

“Tonight Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist [I strongly disagree.] She asked tough, fair and revealing questions,” a network spokesperson said. “And she followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time [not often] to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner.”

“That is CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.”

CNN’s responsibility is to not give a sociopath and pathological liar, and the leader of the first coup d’état attempt against the U.S. government in our history, a platform in which to spew “a firehose of disinformation,” i.e., his Big Lie propaganda, and attempt to rehabilitate this sociopath and normalize Donald Trump’s pathological lying. This is what CNN was doing with this bogus “town hall,” and it begs the questions of “Why?” and “To what end?” WTF is wrong with this Chris Licht? If he is going to turn CNN into FOX Lite, it’s time for everyone to #BoycottCNN. If the network suffers financially from Licht’s management, the shareholders will demand that he be fired.

The Sidebar

“The predictably disastrous [CNN] town hall was indeed disastrous,” television news vet Mark Lukasiewicz tweeted. “Proving again: Live lying works. A friendly MAGA crowd consistently laughs, claps at Trump’s punch lines – including re sex assault and Jan 6 – and the moderator cannot begin to keep up with the AR-15 pace of lies.”

“This thing was madness, total madness,” Bill Carter said. “Like giving a microphone to Drunk Uncle and saying: go for it!”

“This is CNN’s lowest moment as an organization,” [certainly one of] James Fallows argued.

“THIS is the 2024 Republican presidential primary,” Brian Stelter wrote. “Look away if you choose, but this is what it’s going to be like. Should news outlets sanitize it or stare it in the face?”

There is another option, Brian, CNN should not voluntarily give him a platform, and spend all of your time destroying Trump and those who do give him a platform. This is 1932, what will you do to stop Fascism from taking root in America? Stop treating this as the normal Democrat v. Republican politics from the past; it is not.

“This was a preview of what American journalism can expect from a 2024 campaign featuring Mr. Trump, who despite his ubiquity in political life has rarely appeared on mainstream TV outside of Fox News since leaving office,” Michael Grynbaum wrote. (NYT)

Justin Baragona said CNN was walking away from the town hall “with a lot of egg” on its face. “At the same time, I feel like Kaitlan Collins is doing as good as she can in this situation,” he added.

“Chris Licht said he wouldn’t allow anyone on his network that said it’s raining when it’s not,” Alex Sherman pointed out. “But he’s let someone on now who says it’s raining when it’s not, and he added hundreds of people to applaud when he does it.”

“Trump seemed to have a significant home field advantage over Collins,” Jeremy Barr wrote. (WaPo) [Because CNN selected an audience of Trump cultists.]

“Even in a world where [Collins] was correcting every Trump lie as they spewed forth — and we are pretty far from that world — the braying crowd would make Trump look like the victor,” contended Jonathan Chait.

“This was not Kaitlin Collins’ fault,” Charlie Sykes said. “The format was impossible and CNN’s bosses should have known that.” [They did, and intentionally set it up this way.]

“This format programmed her — and the country — for failure,” echoed Tom Nichols.

“This isn’t [Collins’] fault (she is doing the best one can), but this is a gushing geyser of disinformation that is cannot be fact-checked in real time,” added Dan Pfeiffer.

Seung Min Kim reported that the televisions on Air Force One, which “are always” tuned to CNN, were changed to show MSNBC during the town hall.

And finally:





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5 thoughts on “CNN Failed The Nation With Bogus ‘Town Hall’ Of Trump Cultists To Normalize Donald Trump. #BoycottCNN”

  1. What’s more CNN could have justifiably cancelled this atrocity after E. Jean Carroll’s successful lawsuit which cemented The Vulgar Talking Yam’s sexual predator bona fides. Collin’s is not the world’s best interviewer but CNN (Chris Licht) had no problem inflicting her into that no-win situation. But hey! Ratings! Which translate into blood money! Happy investors!

    • A billionaire bought CNN and said he wanted to move CNN to be more like Fox, Kaitlin Collins used to work for Tucker Carlson FFS, and Chris Licht worked for Colbert but he’s clearly a two dollar whore.

      Kaitlin Collins has been busy deleting old tweets, some very, very offensive old tweets, some where she calls people “fags”. She’s been a garbage person for a long time.

      People are shocked today that folks like Anderson Cooper are defending CNN.

      I have no idea why. Cooper is not a journalist, he’s a celebrity, he gets paid millions to get drunk with a reality TV show producer on New Year’s Eve.

      He does that for ratings/money. They all do.

      Cable “news” has been called “billionaires paying millionaires to tell the middle class to blame poor people”.

      They leave out the most important part, “to make billionaires richer”.

      • Had no idea about Kaitlin Collins’ past, I heard she was chosen as moderator as she had once clashed with the VTY. She does seem like garbage,thanks for the tip.

        If the whole idea was to poach Fox viewers it shows how naive the current CNN management is. They really believed they could poach viewers from a network that’s been demonizing CNN since day one?

        The nation desperately needs to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. It’s death paved the way for the trash that’s had such a malign influence on the US. Thanks Ronnie!

        As far as Anderson Cooper goes, I recall Jane Curtin on SNL’s Weekend Update commenting that Gloria Vanderbilt was on a mission to take her good family name and plaster it on every ass in America.

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