(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . CNN's Chris Licht reportedly scolded employee who criticized Trump town hall [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-05-13 Writing for Puck, media reporter Dylan Byers revealed that Licht was a bit salty with CNN’s own Oliver Darcy, who trashed the town hall in the network’s Reliable Sources newsletter. In fact, Licht reportedly dressed down Darcy in the wake of the criticism. Of course, no one at CNN stuck their neck out so far as Oliver Darcy, the thirty-something media reporter who inherited the widely read Reliable Sources newsletter from his former colleague, Brian Stelter. (I, too, contributed to that newsletter once, seemingly a lifetime ago.) On Wednesday night, Darcy opened his email by declaring: “It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,” and reported that Licht was “facing a fury of criticism—both internally and externally over the event.” The vast majority of CNN insiders I spoke to admired Darcy’s courage for channeling their sentiments. His bosses did not. On Thursday, Licht declared in the 9 a.m. meeting that he “absolutely, unequivocally” believed “America was served very well by what we did last night”—a direct rebuke to Darcy’s thesis and lede. Later that day, sources familiar with the matter told me, Licht summoned Darcy and his editor Jon Passantino to a meeting with himself, CNN comms chief Kris Coratti, editorial executive vice president Virginia Moseley and senior vice president of global news Rachel Smolkin, in which they told him that his coverage had been too emotional and repeatedly stressed the importance of remaining dispassionate when covering the news, be it CNN or any other media organization. Dispassionate. Right. Because that’s how we should react to a guy who continually incites chaos and violence in service of the same cult of personality that nearly ended America. I’m not much of an interviewer, and I don’t really like being confrontational in face-to-face situations, but my first follow-up to Trump would have been, “Ah, so I see you wore your Pol Pot Underoos today, Donny.” Because the only way to deal with a ridiculous, scornful person is with ridicule and scorn. Of course, Licht has gone on record as saying that Trump’s odiousness needs to be put on full display (though it goes without saying we’d have gotten the gist if they’d just wheeled him around the studio for 70 minutes in a Hannibal Lecter mask), but he apparently doesn’t extend the same courtesy to his own reporters. Darcy stood by his work and pushed back on the “emotional” characterization, one source with knowledge of the meeting said. But afterward two sources who heard about the meeting described him as visibly shaken. “They put the fear of God into him,” one source said. Gee, does someone feel a little insecure about his standing in the journalism biz? Or whatever industry CNN is in now? It’s not really journalism anymore. What would you call it? Disinfotainment? Nazi fetish porn? The Scheiss-capades? CNN will likely retain very few of the MAGA viewers it was courting with its transparent bid to tickle their crusty nubblies, and judging by the incandescent rage we all witnessed on social media and elsewhere in response to Licht’s grossly irresponsible decision to normalize a cartoon villain, this whole spectacle looks like a giant, flashing neon “L” for the network. But they still have time to redeem themselves. The first and most logical step would be firing Licht. And I assume they have Triumph’s number. Come on, give him a call. After all, nothing could be more embarrassing than what we witnessed Wednesday night. Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/13/2169136/-CNN-s-Chris-Licht-is-reportedly-threatening-employees-who-criticized-Trump-town-hall Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/