CNN's chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour, has publicly expressed her disagreement with the network's management over the decision to host a town hall featuring former President Donald Trump. The event has drawn significant backlash from various quarters.
Amanpour recently met with CNN boss Chris Licht and discussed their differences on this controversial matter. She described their conversation as a "very robust exchange of views." Despite her criticism, she also defended CNN and urged people to give the organization another chance.
During her address, Licht sent a note to the network's global workforce of more than 4,000 employees. He praised Amanpour for her “rare and exceptional honor” while encouraging them to tune in to future broadcasts.
The recent episode (205) of Countdown podcast hosted by Keith Olbermann focused on Amanpour's criticism of the Trump town hall. However, Olbermann is currently on vacation and stated that he might not be able to report about it due to his time in a hotel room in Flagstaff.
In addition to voicing dissent regarding Trump’s appearance at the town hall event, Amanpour spoke highly of Chris Licht for doing what she believes was right – providing a “service to the American people.” She emphasized media outlets' responsibility in preventing McCarthyism-like situations from happening again as they did during the 1950s when unfounded allegations were spread through publications without proper scrutiny or fact-checking.
Brian Darcy, host of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism's newsletter also touched upon this topic recently. In his newsletter introduction, he noted that he had been on pre-planned vacation but acknowledged readers’ curiosity about his take on these developments within CNN.