Trump’s Worst Nightmare? Or Maybe His Best Friend

CNN’s not-so-hidden profit agenda

Sympathizing with adversarial candidates has not been the agenda for major cable news networks since the beginning of the Trump era. Known to be highly polarizing and just a tad eccentric, networks like Fox News and Cable News Network (CNN) have strictly partisan viewer bases with very little overlap. Political news coverage has resorted to competing with gestures and segments of escalating opposition. But viewers from both sides of the political minefield tuned in for an unexpected CNN town hall event on May 10 featuring the Republican's de facto nominee, former President Donald J. Trump. 

While this appears to some voters to be a sign that our news outlet overlords can provide unbiased coverage and good will after all, the town hall signals something more complex for those tuned in to the political consequences. It reminds us once again that profits outweigh platforming divisive voices and exposes the overwhelming hypocrisy of American media corporations. 

Since the town hall there has been a deluge of mixed responses. Some focused on Trump's statements during the event, such as his comments on Jan. 6th and his denials of sexual assault allegations, but it was the network itself that took  a dangerous stance by hosting the event.  that “CNN should be ashamed of themselves,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted after the event, admonishing that the network had been “manipulated into platforming election disinformation, defense of Jan. 6th, and public attack on sexual abuse victims.”

CNN Chairman Chris Licht defended the decision to host the event, stating that it woke people up to the stakes of the election and that “if someone was going to ask tough questions and have that messy conversation, it damn well should be on CNN.” But many argued that the town hall’s moderator, Kaitlan Collins, was failing to fulfill her journalistic duty by not pushing back more on Trump’s claims. 

The reality is, though, that CNN has consistently benefitted from Trump's campaign and  presidency, despite their overwhelmingly negative public stance against him. Trump’s shocking persona and his ability to garner audiences based on either intense love or hatred of him has been a gold mine for the media. In the 2016 presidential race, news outlets provided Trump with $2 billion worth of free press. Since the inauguration of President Biden, CNN’s viewership and profits have faltered as primetime views dropped from an average of 2.5 million during the Trump era to an average of 1.6 million. 

The numbers point to a narrative of financial give and take that CNN partakes in to make their company thrive. According to The New York Times, 3.3 million people tuned in to the town hall, which is considerable in the age of diminishing cable network viewership. 

Does CNN really want a different outcome than the one we saw in 2016? Or does the cashing in of Trump hate-watching supersede the Democratic agenda?

Platforming Trump exposes the cynicism of CNN coverage. After calling him a fascist for four years, they allowed him to say the exact statements they rip apart. Where is the line drawn between hatred and support? The dissonance between Trump as the Hitler figure they painted him to be and the airtime they gave him renders the neo-nazi rhetoric hyperbolic. Let’s say, for instance, that CNN does not truly believe in the massive harm that they assert Trump would create in the United States, then they should not rely on recycling that narrative over and over again. 

If they do believe that Trump is the cancer to America that they say he is, then in what world would it be appropriate to platform such an immoral figure?

Anderson Cooper delivered a message to those watching on Thursday night, apologizing to people hurt by the network’s giving a voice to Trump’s campaign. “You have the right to be outraged today, and angry, and never watch this network again,” the CNN staple patronized.

But Cooper ultimately defended the network’s decision to feature Trump, claiming that the town hall was part of an antidote to today’s echochamber culture of political media. This is an unsatisfactory response. Trump’s actions and lies have gone unreprimanded, and were only being encouraged through the town hall and CNN’s reliance on the former president’s love for controversy. He is a master at pushing the news media’s buttons, which gains him approval from his base and outrage from the left, and as long as the media lets him continue to stun audiences, the former president will retain the upper hand.

While hosts don’t speak for the entire network, Cooper’s comments reflect the common thread in CNN’s defense of their coverage of Trump. Statements like this condescend to viewers. After Wednesday night’s programming, viewers have no reason to believe the network that repeatedly disavows Trump as a respectable or moral politician is trustworthy.

Their hypocrisy is only emphasized by the network’s recent and public demonstration of their ability to cut off those with harmful actions, firing long-time host Don Lemon after his misogynistic comments. But they still refuse to cut off the lifeline of profit that keeps the heart of their news coverage pumping. 

It’s likely that Lemon was an easier financial cut to make, allowing the network to more comfortably appease its professed liberal ideals of equality and social justice. Not so much when it comes to Trump. That is something they are unwilling to sacrifice. 

News media needs to return to being a forum for complex discussion on both sides of the political aisle. But in the past, when this was a reality, the media and politicians were not polarized to the point where the opposite candidate became evil incarnate and networks were able to healthily platform opposing candidates without hypocrisy. Creating a reinforcing feedback loop, politics and news media have become spectacles that value reckless exposure over character. While sensationalism for the sake of profit is not new, news media’s aversion to consistent values diminishes its trustworthiness to the viewer.  

One cannot shout fascist in a crowded room and continue to have said fascist on the network.