CNN’s Trump Trainwreck and the Mainstreaming of Authoritarians

<p>The pageantry of lies that passed for a town hall last week was yet another low point in CNN&rsquo;s coverage of Donald Trump.</p> <p>To absolutely no one&rsquo;s surprise, the former president used the media attention to paint an alternative view of recent U.S. history &mdash; one in which he features not as the twice-impeached, criminally indicted sexual abuser who lost the last presidential election, but as a decisive and winning strongman, the only person with the power and charisma to make America great again.</p> <p>It&rsquo;s a script that appealed to his many MAGA supporters in the New Hampshire auditorium last week; they cheered on their man as he mocked the victim of his sexual battery and called CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins &ldquo;nasty&rdquo; for her often futile efforts to fact check Trump in real time. (Prior to the live town hall, a floor manager&nbsp;<a href="https://puck.news/inside-the-trump-cnn-thunderdome/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">reportedly</a>&nbsp;told audience members that they could cheer but not boo during the show.)</p> <p>And the Trump loyalists inside the town hall weren&rsquo;t the only ones cheering on cue. The day after the program aired, CNN CEO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/cnn-ceo-chris-licht-defends-trump-town-hall-praises-kaitlan-collins-1235485313/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Chris Licht praised the event</a>, telling staff that &ldquo;America was served very well by what we did.&rdquo;</p> <p><a href="https://timkarr.medium.com/cnns-trump-trainwreck-and-the-mainstreaming-of-authoritarians-ec58b90cb0fb"><strong>Learn More</strong></a></p>