‘Maybe live is not always right’: Christiane Amanpour calls out CNN boss over Trump town hall

CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour has become the first network anchor to call out the channel’s decision to host former US president Donald Trump in a controversial town hall.

The news TV icon also said the media is yet to figure out how to tackle Trump and his disinformation. “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…maybe live is not always right.” She also said the audience cheering Trump’s remarks on the sexual abuse charges against him was part of the problem, and that CNN should not have allowed it as it was the network’s venue.

Last week, Trump was given 70 minutes of unfiltered primetime space on a stage in New Hampshire, in an event that allowed the Republican leader to indulge in campaign rhetoric. He deployed several nicknames for opponents and repeated his controversial claims on several issues – from the 2020 US elections, to the Capitol Hills riot, and the abortion judgment.

A day after the event, CNN CEO Chris Licht had reportedly defended the decision to hold the event before a Trump-friendly crowd – who booed the anchor’s attempts to fact-check the Republican leader and cheered on his rhetoric. “While we all may have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping, that was also an important part of the story, because the people in that audience represent a large swath of America,” Licht said. “And the mistake the media made in the past is ignoring that those people exist. Just like you cannot ignore that President Trump exists.”

CNN, which saw a sharp dip in ratings just a month ago, clocked a much higher viewership of around 3.3 million with the town hall, according to Nielsen data.

And nearly a week later, Christiane Amanpour made scathing remarks about her network, Trump and the media while accepting the Columbia Journalism Award, as the school’s 2023 commencement speaker. 

“I still respectfully disagree with allowing Donald Trump to appear in that particular format,” said the television news icon, adding that she has “had a very robust exchange of views” with CNN CEO Chris Licht over the issue. 

“I would have dropped the mic at ‘nasty person,’ but then that’s me,” Amanpour said while referring to Trump’s response to moderator Kaitlan Collins for asking a question he did not like. 

Amanpour said journalists must “be truthful, but not neutral”. “Bothsideism is not always objectivity. It does not get you to the truth. Drawing false moral or factual equivalence is neither objective or truthful. Objectivity is our golden rule and it is in weighing all the sides and hearing all the evidence, but not rushing to equate them when there is no equating.”

Stating that “maybe live is not always right”, she added that “some of the very best and even most fiery, compelling interviews are, in fact, taped and they are edited, not to change the context or the content or the truth or the intent, but to edit for filibuster and a stream of disinformation”. 

The anchor also said that there is a “100 percent connection” between a “robust, independent, free and fair press and a functioning democracy and the advance of human rights and justice”.

While the debate rages on in the world’s oldest democracy, the largest democracy is not without its share of similar, perhaps more serious, questions about the role of the press.

In February, hearing several petitions, the Supreme Court had underlined the need to stop hate speech on news channels.

On mainstream media platforms in India, it’s not just panelists who indulge in hate-mongering and disinformation but often even prominent voices from mainstream media. The governing party’s promotional content is occasionally aired as news.

Check out the Bloodlust TV section for some other examples.