A major CNN personality has spoken publicly about the network hosting former President Donald Trump in a town hall last week.
While accepting the Columbia Journalism Award and delivering the school’s commencement address Wednesday night, CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour said she met with CNN boss Chris Licht to voice her displeasure over the town hall. CNN’s Oliver Darcy reported that Amanpour said she and Licht had a “robust” conversation, but she didn’t change her views.
Amanpour said, “I still respectfully disagree with allowing Donald Trump to appear in that particular format.”
That format being a live town hall.
She added, “Maybe we should revert back to the newspaper editors and TV chiefs of the 1950s, who in the end refused to allow McCarthyism onto their pages. Unless his foul lies, his witch hunts and his rants reached the basic evidence level required in a court of law. His influence gradually decreased with all but his fervent colleagues and cults. So maybe less is more. Maybe live is not always right.”
However, CNBC’s Alex Sherman writes, “Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Zaslav backs CNN chief Licht amid anger over Trump town hall.”
In the story, Sherman writes that David Zaslav, CEO of CNN’s parent company, said, “We need to show both sides of every issue.”
And now, media news, tidbits and interesting links for your weekend review, starting with a little juicy ESPN news …
- This is a very big deal. The Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Toonkel and Sarah Krouse with “ESPN Plans to Stream Flagship Channel, Eyeing Cable TV’s Demise.” Uh, read that headline again. Toonkel and Krouse have quite the scoop here. They are reporting that ESPN plans to eventually sell its channel directly to consumers who don’t want or get cable. In other words, you could get ESPN like those who pay for streaming services such as Netflix. Toonkel and Krouse wrote, “ESPN would continue to offer the TV channel after launching a streaming option, the people familiar with the matter said. Still, the change could have a major impact on cable-TV providers, since ESPN is one of the main attractions of the cable bundle. The providers pay to carry the ESPN channel and would have to compete with the new streaming service.”
- By the way, Toonkel has been dishing out the scoops of late. She helped break the story this week that the NFL was going to put an NFL playoff game exclusively on Peacock this upcoming season, as well as exclusives about Netflix and Shaquille O’Neal, Kenya Barris and 50 Cent exploring a bid for BET.
- The New York Times is switching up how it does bylines and datelines for online stories. Instead of just a traditional dateline such as “WASHINGTON,” the Times will say something such as “Reporting from Washington” or some broader description. The Times explained, “Why the change? This new format is plainspoken and leaves no doubt that we have reporters on the ground, a critical measure of the authority of our journalism. Audience research shows that readers are confused by traditional datelines. Many understand that they signify the location of the news but not that we were there.” Check out the link in this item for more details.
- The Washington Post’s Karla Adam and William Booth with “New York car chase highlights Prince Harry’s mission to change the media.”
- Semafor’s Max Tani with “Christian rival to Fox poaches Newsmax host.”
- The Wrap’s Lucas Manfredi with “What Every Major Hollywood Chief Executive Got Paid in 2022.”
- The Washington Post’s Marc Fisher with “End of a love affair: AM radio is being removed from many cars.”
- NBA fans who tried to watch Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat are furious after glitches interrupted the final minutes of a close game with a loop of commercials for “The Little Mermaid.” Deadline’s Dade Hayes has the latest.
- The New York Times’ Robert D. McFadden with “Sam Zell, 81, Tycoon Whose Big Newspaper Venture Went Bust, Dies.”
- Ryan Wilusz of the Knoxville News Sentinel with “Change your hair or leave: Knoxville anchor says she was fired by WATE for her appearance.”
- The Atlantic’s Matteo Wong with “Nowhere Should Expect a Cool Summer.”
- Also in The Atlantic, Jemele Hill with “Ja Morant Flunks the Common-Sense Test.”
- Awful Announcing’s Joe Lucia with “LIV will no longer report viewership data from US broadcasts.” … I’ll give you all a second to make the joke: “What viewership?”
- And, finally today, the very talented Jeré Longman of The New York Times with “After a ‘Kill Shot’ to the Eye, a Wrestler Restarts His Life.”
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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