CNN Chief Chris Licht “summoned” senior media press reporter Oliver Darcy and his editor to his workplace for a meeting with other magnates to reprimand him for his critical protection of the network’s town hall with former President Donald Trump, according to report.
Puck News‘s Dylan Byers initially reported the conference Friday, writing:
Licht summoned Darcy and his editor Jon Passantino to a conference with himself, CNN comms primary 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 consistently stressed the importance of remaining dispassionate when covering the news, be it CNN or any other media organization.
Byers wrote that “Darcy stood by his work and pushed back on the ’em otional’ characterization” but that two sources had described Darcy as “noticeably shaken.”
“They put the worry of God into him,” Byers reported.
SCOOP @PuckNews: CNN’s Chris Licht summoned @OliverDarcy and his editor to a meeting with himself and top executives in which they informed him that his protection of Trump town hall had actually been too emotional and stressed the value of remaining dispassionate: https://t.co/R0dgcOmgGa
— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) Might 12, 2023
The coverage they were supposedly referring to remained in Darcy’s newsletter, Reliable Sources, which he took over from Brian Stelter after Licht ousted him.
Darcy had actually composed in the piece: “It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,” including:
It’s tough to see how America was served by the phenomenon of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday night. More in @ReliableSources: https://t.co/Rg44NsPLvb
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) Might 11, 2023
CNN and brand-new network manager Chris Licht are facing a fury of criticism– both internally and externally over the occasion. How Licht and other CNN executives address the criticism in the coming days and weeks will be essential. Will they safeguard what transpired at Saint Anselm College? Or will they express some regret? For now, CNN is safeguarding itself.
He then included reactions from other reporters knocking the city center.
Darcy is not the only CNN employee apparently dissatisfied about the town hall, which saw Trump control the phase as he was cheered on by fans in the audience.
A “popular” on-air CNN skill called the town hall a “overall fiasco,” including, according to Moderate:
I’ve never ever been more embarrassed to operate at CNN. I don’t think any person came out looking excellent. This is completely a corporate and management failure. They should have expected how out of control Trump would be … to believe he was going to act more governmental in that kind of setting is simply naivety on a galactic scale.
Darcy had also tweeted the day after the town hall, prior to his conference with Licht, that “dozens” of CNN staffers, varying in seniority and positions throughout the network, “expressed dismay by what they saw transpire on their television screens.”
24 hr after CNN’s city center, it’s all anybody is talking about. Throughout the day, we spoke with lots of network staffers– ranging in seniority and positions throughout the org– who all revealed dismay by what they saw transpire on their TV screens. https://t.co/11m7ZsCV8u
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 12, 2023
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