It doesn’t necessarily have to be the one or the other. Here in Germany, the main TV and radio networks (ARD and ZDF) are largely funded via a mandatory levy on households but are set up such that the government has no control over how they are run. In particular, if they’re running content that the government doesn’t like, the government can’t threaten to stop their funding like the Tories keep doing to the BBC in the UK. The system isn’t perfect but it isn’t Putin’s media, either.
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The Jeremy Paxman vs. Michael Howard interview from decades ago was precisely this form. Howard had been accused of interfering in the running of a prison and was determined not to answer the question…
It utterly destroyed Howard’s credibility as Home Secretary - and it only came about because there was a technical problem in the gallery preventing them going to the next item on the programme:
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I mean, they absolutely learned something. They learned that they could enjoy short term benefits in the form of higher ratings by putting Trump on air. They are dying for the campaign to really get going so they can have him on screen 24/7. It will be all Trump all the time because he is valuable. He pulls eyeballs like no other. Hate him? You’re watching to see how bad it is. Love him? You’re watching because you like what he says.
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unfortunately, ■■■■■ would say that of course he’d threatened him, and he’d do it again.
that is, if he hadn’t already bullied and shouted down the interviewer and gone on to talk about how american cities are being burned to the ground by criminals
howard failed in that interview by having a conversation with the interveiwer. ■■■■■ never makes that mistake.
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You know, between this and twitter, I begin to wonder if it was sensible to have everything set up in a way where Nazi financiers can take over any part of our information ecosystem at any time. 
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The corporate masters at CNN have a delusion that there’s some way they can appeal to the MAGA crowd while still keeping their regular audience. I’m sure they pulled in a lot of Trumpy eyeballs for this debacle, but then it’s back to Fox and OANN for those people. It’s a stupid stupid ploy-- the only way MAGAworld will not think of CNN as the Communist News Network is if it moves to the right of Fox. Simply put, CNN can’t have their cake and eat it too here. It’s embarrassing and offensive that they even tried.
The reality of news media now is that you can’t appeal to everyone anymore. You can’t even just neutrally report facts because facts clash with conservative ideals most of the time.
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I’m sure it will be fine! I hear we’re an exceptional country and that it “can’t happen here”!!! /s
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This has always been CNN. Always. It’s always been centrist, both-siderist, American-exceptionalist-boosterism coverage.
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I mean, ARD and ZDF were what I had in mind when I said the above. I’d say they’re very much in the not-private column.
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As the only logical fallback I kinda hoped they wanted to show the rest of America what kind of bully he was and so they hired one of their own to be the endless victim (and then show how unhinged the cheering mob would be as their own audience). They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he he’d try to humiliate the f out of her. Hearing/watching Blowhard say “nasty” to her face is like anyone else using the c word.
And it played out flawlessly. Maybe the rest of the country got something out of it but I doubt it.
Even the piece on here is so gross, I hit stop after a few seconds. Disgusted with CNN. But, don’t mind me on my 20th anniversary as a cable cutter.
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I guess we’re all being welcomed to the post-whatsisname era.
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Subjecting their employee to a misogynist bully isn’t quite the flex they think it is… but hey, she’s just a woman, so not like she matters to the people who run the company. 
He literally tried to stage an insurrection. There is NO fucking excuse for this. None.
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Yeah. It won’t work. The thing is, if he sees that he’s losing, he says he’s being victimized and leaves. He will threaten to sue or use platforms through which he exclusively speaks to his followers to reinforce his own oppression and victimhood. His MO -works-. “They’re all out to get me.” The more he loses, the more he gains, i.e., the more solidified is his following by people who have themselves been led to feel like losers.
There’s only one environment where you start to get a sense of his feeling ground down: a deposition.
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I think what CNN did was a good thing. It gave non-Fox News and non-OANN viewers a chance to see for themselves that former President Donald John Trump lies like a rug. Does no one else remember CNN anchor Victor Blackwell’s gumball coverage of Trump’s false and misleading statements?
The Town Hall was like a continuation of this. I still think the only reason they stopped running the gumball bit is they ran out of room on the stage.
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No they did not. They let Trump dominate their moderator and continue to spread lies and made it look like he has wild support… they platformed a fascist and people need to stop doing that.
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Yes, they did not have a moderator that could counter him effectively and the crowd was not representative of the electorate–it served no purpose other than to promote him in an attempt to pull viewership away from Fox.
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Why do we keep engaging CNN as if they have good faith? They are probably trying to hire Tucker Carlson right now.
I’m cynical and angry but I’m not saying that because I’m cynical and angry. This is what CNN has decided it wants to be.
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And…
I’m done with people making excuses for them…
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CNN bookers are pounding the phones! It’s all hands on deck to find more people found liable for sexual assault. The thinking is a series with a 2 hr Christmas special.
