CNN's Dance with the Devil: The Controversial Trump Town Hall and Today's Firing of Chairman Chris Licht

Since the infamous CNN "town hall," a platform where Donald Trump was shamelessly promoted to an adoring crowd of his MAGA followers, I quit using or referring to the network. I promptly deleted the CNN app, unfollowed the Twitter account, and dismissed any information shared by this once-respected network. I realize this was just a tiny, one-man boycott, admittedly feeble and likely inconsequential, but it was my silent protest.

However, this morning brought breaking news that CNN's chairman, Chris Licht, a key player in the network's regrettable shift toward the right, had lost his position. His year-long tenure will be remembered for a series of controversies, programming blunders, and a devastating decline in financial results.

What upset me most was Licht's utilization of the reputable CNN platform to provide a stage and a carefully selected audience for a neo-fascist leader who spared no effort to undermine the very fabric of American democracy, its norms, and its values. That was not journalism; it was the brazen promotion of a dangerous cult.

As I pen these words, the echoes of raucous laughter from Trump's devoted followers as he ruthlessly ridiculed a woman whom a jury had justly found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming reverberate in my mind. That moment remains etched in my memory, a vivid reminder of the complicity that permeated the CNN-sponsored Trump spectacle, amplifying the harm and insult inflicted upon her.

This was Chris Licht's defining moment. As the head of CNN, he vowed to assemble a panel of "ordinary Republicans and GOP-leaning independents." Yet, as astutely observed by Tim Alberta in the Atlantic, the audience primarily comprised "diehards, fanboys, political zealots who were likelier to show up at a rally with a MAGA flag than come to a coffee shop with a policy question."

The town hall event was one example of a series of missteps. By March, CNN's reputation had plummeted to such depths that viewers began abandoning the network en masse. While cable news ratings experienced a general decline compared to the previous year when events surrounding Russia's invasion of Ukraine received much attention, CNN suffered a record-breaking 61% dip in prime-time viewership. In comparison, MSNBC saw a comparatively modest 12% decrease. CNN found itself mired in its lowest viewership numbers in decades, and the next town hall catastrophe further tarnished its already faltering reputation.