Trump on CNN Town Hall Tonight

CNN gave Trump an hour to spread his lies at a town hall format of Trump supporters.

I'm torn on this. On the one hand CNN should be praised for hosting a "news worthy" event. On the other hand it was really just handing the former President a platform to spread his stupid lies on national TV for an hour or so.

I'm not sure which side I come down on. What is your opinion?

 

Nah - let the Big Clown ride his tiny tricycle of lies. We can laugh and all his supporters can praise him --- yet again. No harm that hasn't already been done, a thousand times. The Ringmaster (CNN) is not to blame if you don't like a circus performer, or his trainers and handlers.

 

I disagree. I feel they have a huge responsibility in this. They chose to put him in the ring knowing what he was. It's like Chris Rock said when the tiger almost killed Roy: "That tiger didn't go crazy. That tiger when TIGER!" CNN knew what Trump would do. He would lie and be belligerent to the host. There was zero public value in what they did so they should not have done it. The public learned nothing from the exercise, except that a (supposedly) legitimate news outlet was willing to treat the traitorous liar as legitimate and give him an unfettered forum to spew his salacious and seditious lies.

 

The sad part of the story is that it is appearing more likely that Trump will be the Republican nominee. That would seem to make the silly show somewhat news worthy? As mentioned I'm torn on this. I didn't watch the whole thing but I was disappointed that there was not any real attempt to correct his lies. CNN should not have agreed to a format that didn't allow at least some minimal fact checking. I know that is hard though because he is a big bully and just talks over people when they are saying or asking something that he doesn't like.

 

Is there any public value in ANYTHING they do? A visit to CNN is most often like a visit to a porn site, in that viewers EXPECT and DEMAND the same-old same-old. They each have their favourite diversions. If they don't get what they want - they change the channel - maybe permanently. Plenty of competition.

You visit a porn site - or CNN - you know what to expect. That's how they both make money. And they're both allowed to. Nobody says you have to watch what you don't like.

 

I sometimes watch CNN but I get most of my news from the CNN app. MediaBiasFactCheck.com rates CNN pretty good compared to all the cable news channels. NewsNation is rated best. CNN is rated next best, I believe, and their written word is more reliable than their live news broadcasts.

Johann's point is well taken, though I believe it applies more directly to the conservative news viewers moving between Fox, Newsmax and OAN, than it does to CNN and MSNBC although I'm sure the same kind of thing happens there as well sometimes.

 

I guess it goes to show you…. Money can buy you almost anything… including airtime on CNN.

 

Money yes, but from where? Advertisers were probably scrambling for spots.

 

Here's a CNN article on this topic. Titled
Analysis: CNN faces harsh criticism after Trump unleashed a firehose of lies during its live town hall
quote:
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.
...
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 broke out in cheers.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/11/media/cnn-town-hall-donald-trump-reliable-sources/index.html

Most of the article is then Twitter messages from folks very critical of the platform allowing Trump to unleash his firehose of lies.

 

I don't think the Trumpster Fire is likely to win many converts to the GOP cause. I also don't think anything at this point will sway the Trump Base. They will make any crazy argument to excuse or explain away his frauds and crimes. So we will have a rematch of 2020 with probably the same results as in 2020.

 

Say, can I join you guys sometime? You can not watch CNN and I won't watch porn. We'll have twice the fun!

 

No one can credibly claim to be at all surprised that it went the way it did. This was EXACTLY how everyone expected it to turn out.

 

I really like this idea of not watching different TV channels together. Maybe we could all agree on a TV channel not to watch together and strengthen our comradery?

 

Yeah but it's like reading Global Times. Nothing the paper says is reliable but everything it says gives you a picture of what the Chinese Communists are thinking.

 

Room full of Trump supporters. Zero fact-checking on Trump's lies. Nothing in the way of follow-up.
1. Question
2. Lying answer
3. Audience laughter and cheering
4. Repeat.

Ugh.