CNN reporter Oliver Darcy scolded by CEO Chris Licht over ‘emotional’ coverage of Trump town hall: report
CNN reporter Oliver Darcy was reportedly left “visibly shaken” after his boss, CEO Chris Licht, tore into the liberal journalist over his “emotional” coverage of the network’s town hall Wednesday night featuring former President Donald Trump.
Darcy was called into a meeting with Licht and other network executives who have been frustrated with the backlash CNN received over the town hall — particularly from left-leaning outlets and politicians, Fox News reported.
Following the town hall broadcast, Darcy appeared to slight his own employer in his “Reliable Sources” newsletter.
In the write-up, Darcy claimed that “CNN and new network boss Chris Licht are facing a fury of criticism — both internally and externally over the event,” which a source told Fox News appalled other staffers, who voiced their frustration with the CEO.
“I’m asking you to not be emotional,” the source paraphrased what Licht told Darcy at the meeting. Licht reportedly said that he wanted to see more objective coverage of all news outlets, not just CNN.
Puck News’ Dylan Byers reported Friday that Darcy “stood by his work.”
“But afterward two sources who heard about the meeting described him as visibly shaken,” Byers reported Friday.
Critics blasted CNN for allowing the former president, now taking his third run at the White House, to repeat unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump also mocked E. Jean Carroll, the writer who successfully sued him for sexual abuse and defamation. Trump has denied the allegations.
During a testy moment at CNN’s town hall, the president called moderator Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person,” eliciting cheers from the crowd.
It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,” Darcy said in the opening of his newsletter.
“How Licht and other CNN executives address the criticism in the coming days and weeks will be crucial. Will they defend what transpired at Saint Anselm College? Or will they express some regret?” Darcy wrote.
For Licht’s part, he seems to express no regret, praising Collins, a rising network star who is expected to be promoted from co-hosting CNN’s morning show to the primetime slot at 9 p.m.
“You do not have to like the former president’s answers, but you can’t say that we didn’t get them,” Licht said at a staff meeting Wednesday morning, according to the audio provided to The Post.
“Kaitlan pressed him again and again and made news,” the CNN CEO reportedly told staffers, adding that making news “is our job.”
The network also backed Collins in a statement after the town hall: “Tonight Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist. She asked tough, fair and revealing questions.”
