What Were They Thinking?
Last night, CNN stupidly handed TFG 70 minutes on the national stage to spew his bullshit and play his greatest hits of lies, big lies, gigantic lies, and intergalactic lies. His “town hall” quickly became a TFG rally complete with mocking of the moderator and continued defamation of every perceived enemy from Biden to E. Jean Carroll. What idiot at CNN thought it would be a good idea to fill a room with TFG supporters and unleash them on national television? TFG began his stream of lies within one minute of taking the stage, and it continued for over an hour, completely running over moderator Kaitlan Collins, who’s effort to fact check TFG was an exercise in futility.
If there was any good that came from last night’s shameful display, it’s that TFG did a superb job of burying himself in confessions of crimes and continued defamation of his enemies, especially E. Jean Carroll, to whom he already owes $5 million. He openly celebrated the January 6th insurrection, calling it a “beautiful day”, and repeated his promise to pardon insurrectionists. He admitted to taking classified documents and hiding them at Mar a Lago. You can bet that Jack Smith and other federal and state prosecutors were listening very carefully and taking copious notes. I have to admit one thing about TFG – he clearly understands his plight and has pushed all of his chips to the center of the table. He knows that if he’s not successful at winning the presidency and taking down the US government, he’s facing the rest of his life either in jail or fighting desperately to stay out. Without a win, his fate is sealed.
We may as well brace for almost two years of this rolling shitshow as it’s clear that TFG controls the former Republican party and no one will come close to taking him down in the primaries. EVERY voter needs to understand the stakes here; you can bet that TFG does.
CNN has just found themselves in no man’s land. They can’t outliberal MSNBC or the Young Turks. They can’t outconservative Fox, OAN, or NewsMax. Everyone naturally assumes they are liberal even if they aren’t because they have been anti-Trump. Ultimately that is not about liberal or conservative. It is about corruption vs. non-corruption, but that’s a nuanced point that is a waste of time.
So, what are they to do? They need eyeballs. So, journalistic ethics be damned.
1I am not so quick to condemn CNN for doing this, although it sure as hell was undignified.
There is no question that Trump did not lose a single vote among his base. But we knew that.
But what is the effect of this on the 70M or so eligible voters that did not vote? Most of those are just indifferent to politics. To them Biden and Trump are just the same thing so who cares. Will that change?
Trump’s clown show has served him well. Yet it is clear that he has gotten diminishing returns. With performances like this, he will start to accrue negative returns. I’m in favor of that.
2The idiot at CNN is Chris Licht, who was brought in as CEO this spring when CNN was swallowed up by Warner Bros. Discovery, which is a newly formed, pretentious contender to be a media powerhouse. A fine global news gathering history is being destroyed in the service of a corporation’s obsession with gaining more audience and advertising revenues.
Think about FOX and you’ll have a picture of the fate that’s befalling CNN under Licht.
3What we saw was a giddy idiot being exactly that. By letting Trump be Trump, the ads write themselves and so do several opening statements.
If I were Jack Smith or Fani Willis, I’d just say “roll tape” when it comes to opening statements.
4Back when CNN started and Ted Turner ran it, it was much better. After he sold CNN it started going downhill, and in the last 10 years or so, I pretty much quit watching it.
5I wonder how many people sitting in their living rooms watched this versus reporters required to watch it. I would have to be paid double, maybe triple! He has defined the GOP as a group OK with murder, rape, against anyone not an old white man – I don’t know whether to run or throw up!
6“What idiot at CNN thought it would be a good idea to fill a room with TFG supporters and unleash them on national television? ”
I’m not saying this to be insulting, El Jefe. I value your contributions here. But UmptyDump is right. You watched it. That makes the CNN producer bright, not an idiot. Their goal is not to be right, or to lay out objective reporting. It’s to make money, and to do that they need to get as many people watching as possible. I give it 10 years max before CNN will feature some guy biting the heads off live chickens.
7MSNBC’s Alex Wagner had a lot to say last night about Combover Crime Lord’s star turn on CNN, and she had former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill share some of her thoughts. Ms. McCaskill said she believed the forum, the format, and the picked audience all were signs that the NSGOP was on its way to becoming a fringe party.
I would agree, except that the chance still exists that the NSGOP will take absolute control of American politics through violence and all the other underhanded means they can think of. What CNN, Discovery, MSNBC, and all the other media channels do until the NSDAP – oops, the NSGOP – either does or becomes irrelevant will write the tale.
8I didn’t watch last night. I just couldn’t subject myself to the TFG/ PAB/ Orange Menace’s lies and outrageous boorish behavior. Not to mention the adoration and idolatry of his MAGAt fans.
I did hear a few clips this morning. If anything it was worse than I thought it might be. TFG/ PAB/ Orange Menace said he was “owed” the 11,000+ votes in GA. OWED.
PAB isn’t owed the smell of an oil rag.
9I had no interest in watching it and am unsurprised at the reports about elements from it.
I think this is very much going to be fuel for the prosecution on many of his upcoming trials.
I also want to see the two other declared Republican’s in race get their hour of town hall, since CNN said that is why they are doing this for any candidate in race. Not that I will watch those either. You could not pay me enough to vote Republican for any office these days. Note: I still consider myself an independent.
10I did not watch it and have deleted CNN from my web sites that I frequent.
The only good thing that came from this shit show was enough materials to write half of our campaign ads.
You must see the most recent article from Jeff Tiedrich.
11https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/holy-shit-cnn-what-the-fuck-were
I have never wished Alzheimer’s on anyone, but I hope Ted Turner has some form of mercy dementia that would spare him knowledge of what his network has become.
Sorry, Mama.
12I used to be critical of anyone judging a thing when they had not actually seen a thing. But the last seven years of Trump has shown me that a narcissistic sociopath can only be diminished if he is not given attention. Sure he will try to grab it. Trump aches for it—–but that should be between him and a therapist
–not us and a supposed “news channel”.
CNN’s Licht was so happy that they had highlighted a screaming lunatic who giggled about his sexual abuse of a woman and probable incrimination of himself in so much criminal crap while saying that huge amount of Americans want to vote for him.
Hmmm. . . so I guess now we should get comfortable with the probable treasonous, rapist, racist being the voice that says “This is CNN”.
13CNN- for the love of money they have prostituted themselves (definition- a person who willingly uses their talent or ability in an unworthy way, usually for money).
14The CNN boat has been sinking for quite some time so they are begging magats for a lifeline. Good luck with that. Maybe next they’ll hire the tuckster.
This wasn’t about ratings ….
15There are no and, if’s or but’s about it, giving a blatantly criminal insurrectionist a public platform to spew his lies and spread Hate only proves how much control, influence and power the White Entitlement, Religious Right and Corporate Fascists really have.
And I hate to say it, because I do believe that women can be equals, but reality is, the moment they made the moderator a woman, they failed to control the dialogue. Trump has no respect in general for most people, but he especially prefers to exert power (bluster) over women trying to get in any words.
I saw some clips and it was obvious that he plowed all over any efforts by the moderator.
16Someone on Twitter described the town hall as ‘more legal hot water’. I offer that as the new name for TFGs band. Also hope DOJ was paying attention.
17It looks like I might be a voice in the wilderness here, but a possible defense for CNN might be giving an idiot enough rope to hang himself with. Which he may have done last night from what I have read in my local old time GOP leaning newspapers. He was preaching to the choir while exposing his insanity to the center half of the swing voters and independents. He already owns the nutso MAGA fringe. The battle has to be won or lost in the swing center who need to be motivated to get off our dead butts and vote TFG onto the trash pile of history,”Please.”
18It was pure wingnut propaganda disguised as a town hall ratings episode. ( good propaganda is ‘disguised’) CNN’s Chris Licht just showed us his true MEGA ‘Conservative’ colors.
I agree with Sonny Hostin.
Video at bottom of link …
‘Joy Behar Rescinds Support For Trump Town Hall: “Was CNN Passing Out Kool-Aid?”
https://deadline.com/2023/05/joy-behar-donald-trump-town-hall-cnn-kool-aid-1235363279/
and
‘Trump’s CNN town hall could have implications for ongoing criminal cases: former FBI counsel ‘
19https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2660022429/
The news network formerly known as CNN is now the Crummy “news” network. They gave Don Lemon the heave ho for his comments (stupid comments) about Nikki Haley while basically encouraging trumpf to make his sexist comments on national teevee. Not too two faced are they?
20I’m not gonna tell you where I come from in order to get the next sentence off the runway. I’m just gonna do it. That so called “town hall” performance was completely and totally Mafioso to the stratosphere. Yup. I said Mafioso as in Mafia. The Golden Gibbon outdid every performance of a mob lord in any film ever made. The only thing – or two – missing from that performance was the severed head of a horse. In closing, just gotta say – Gpo Jack Smith!! Use this clown show as part of the prosecution, just like the recording on the bus with the Bush cousin!!!
21Trump understands what large parts of our population want in a leader: to be entertained. Guys like Biden are no fun, they don’t do funny stuff. With TFG you can be assured that there will be another act today, or maybe tomorrow…forever.
Issues? What issues? The economy? Whatever. Russia, China, Israel, Africa, etc: Can I build a golf course there? Ignorance and apathy? I don’t know and I don’t care.
But everybody loves a clown. Even if they are kind of creepy.
22When I watched the disrespectful way Trump treated the moderator, bullying, name calling, refusing to let her speak, all I could think was, if he treats her this way in front of millions of viewers how would he act if he thought no one was watching?
At this point I would probably believe anything any woman would accuse him of doing, anytime, anyplace.
23Star @16: way back in the 80s, PBS had an interviewer named Charlayne Hunter-Gault. No politician could overrun her, and she was a pit bull when it came to them trying to weasel out of answering the question. Attempts at Gish Galloping were cut off before a single step was made. And does anyone think that Trump could push past Ann Richards, Barbara Jordan, or Molly Ivins?
It’s not an issue of male versus female here. It’s more a matter of modern news programs wanting glitz, glamor, and access above all else. I don’t know what the CNN interviewer looks like – I quit watching all television over 20 years ago and will never go back. But I’m willing to bet she is an attractive young woman. If it was Fox News, I’d go further and bet she’s blond.
24I agree with Sunny Hostin 150% again. We all know what happens if you don’t condemn harmful actions and hold people accountable. Wahhhh!
This was actually a yuuuge free campaign rally for tRump.
“I don’t think you give a bigot and racist and a misogynist and a liar and a cheater and a sexual abuser and a defamer a platform of 3 million people,” Hostin said.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2660062495/
and …
25https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHgYWfkjH7A
“Network,” 1976. Money (ratings)! Craven. Not a surprise.
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