Three Questions CNN Should Ask Trump This Week (But Likely Won't)
The media's job is to be critical and remain unbeholden to any political ideology. It is the "fourth estate."
Remember all those times Donald Trump attacked CNN?
His diatribes against the so-called “liberal fake news” cable network before he moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue were legion. As president, he maligned it over 63 times on Twitter.
Despite the mainstream news outlets gifting the former host of Celebrity Apprentice with thousands of hours of free media during and after his campaign for the presidency, Trump never relented in his assaults upon them. Like a battered lover, the corporate media just couldn’t keep from coming back.
That’s because huge right-leaning corporations in business to turn profits and benefit from republican tax cuts to the morbidly rich own the mainstream so-called “liberal” media outlets.
But now that CNN has been turned over to a new network head, it seems all has been forgiven.
In case you haven’t heard, Donald Trump is going to appear on a CNN-hosted town hall this week in New Hampshire. Moderating it will be “CNN This Morning” anchor Kaitlan Collins.
There are so many reasons why this is a terrible idea.
First, CNN’s reputation as an honest, trustworthy news source is fairly solid (unlike Fox News’s). What will assuredly sully that is giving oxygen to a twice-impeached former president who incited an attempted coup, sucked up to dictators, lied over 30,000 times (which led to over a million American COVID deaths), whom 18 women have accused of sexual assault, suggested the Constitution be “suspended” over the lie he lost re-election, was just indicted on 34 felony counts, and is facing even more.
Second, Kaitlan Collins got her start at The Daily Caller, the ultra right-wing hate site now-disgraced Fox News poster child Tucker Carlson started.
Third, CNN is NEVER going to seduce the right-wing hate media audience no matter how hard CNN’s new president Chris Licht tries.
Don’t expect Collins to proffer anything but softball questions to the Trump-friendly audience.
But maybe we’ll be surprised.
Here are the three questions Kaitlan Collins should ask, but probably will not.
Why did you lie to the American people about COVID — leading to a million unnecessary deaths — after telling journalist Bob Woodward, COVID was “Deadly stuff”?
Why are there 18 women accusing you of sexual assault?
Why did you call for the suspension of the Constitution?
Early in 2016, former CBS chairman Les Moonves told attendees of the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco:
Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now? The money’s rolling in and this is fun. I’ve never seen anything like this, and this going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going. It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.
Turn on any so-called “liberal” news outlet and watch the commercials for the pharmaceutical and fossil fuels industries and Medicare Advantage.
As progressive talk show host and author Thom Hartmann — a frequent critic of our obsequious corporate media — recently wrote in his piece “ Why We Urgently Need Media Outlets for the Common Good”:
These are dangerous times, and news organizations putting profits over democracy is a sure path to America ending up like Hungary with a corrupt, strongman ‘conservative’ running the country.
Yes, the media biased — toward the wealthy and corporations, which are by nature not democratic.
This is a result of it overcompensating after overtly and proudly biased right-wing hate media relentlessly “calls out” its “liberal bias.”
There is a truly liberal, progressive media, but it does not have nearly the financial capacity nor audience of the over 1,500 right-wing talk radio stations, including several hundred Spanish-language ones.
And, of course, there’s the internet and the mother of all propaganda networks so-called “news”.
The media’s job is to be critical and remain unbeholden to any political ideology.
It is “ fourth estate.”
But it cannot be free of political bias and financial bias simultaneously.
It cannot serve two masters.
In 2016, the media handed Donald Trump thousands of hours and millions of dollars in free airtime in addition to giving him pass after pass simply by dint of his being “new”.
We can blame this in part on the Reagan administration’s decision to stop enforcing the Fairness Doctrine and Obama’s removing it from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) code.
We can also blame Bill Clinton’s signing of the Telecommunications Act in 1996.
Social media being allowed to promote fake news in the form of foreign trolls and bots is problematic too.
But the current running through both — money.
Money is the cancer in our politics as it is in our media.
Just Donald Trump played the media in 2016, the next Trump wanna-be is going to do the same if we don’t reverse course.
Want to do something?
Sign the Move On petition asking CNN to stop giving Trump free airtime.
https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/cnn-stop-giving-trump-free-airtime