Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center is loyal to Donald Trump -- almost as much as it hates CNN -- so it was thrilled that Trump was granted airtime on CNN for a live town hall. First, it had to bash any critic of it. A May 4 post by Nicholas Fondacaro whined that "On Wednesday’s edition of ABC’s The View a majority of the liberal cast voiced outright disgust or some form of frustration with CNN’s planned town hall with former President Trump next week." He further huffed that one co-host complained that CNN's Kaitlan Collins "wouldn’t make for a good host because Trump would simply talk over her and drown her out. She said this while talking over co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin and drowning her out."
A May 6 post by Tom Olohan touted the head of CNN's parent company defending the town hall, portraying anyone who criticzied it as a "leftist":
Despite leftist criticism, the CEO of CNN’s parent company said Trump’s upcoming town hall with the network will not be canceled.
During a Friday appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav, responded to leftist squawking about the Trump town hall. When asked about former President Donald Trump’s May 10th town hall on CNN, Zaslav responded, “He should be.” Later on in the interview, Zaslav added, “He’s the front-runner, he has to be on our network,” before continuing that he was happy to have Trump on the network.
Zaslav is responding to widespread condemnation from other leftist media figures. ABC News’ hosts Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg both criticized CNN for allowing former President Trump to speak to their audience. Political commentator Keith Olbermann hysterically tweeted that CNN “was committing journalistic suicide.” Journalist Scott Dworkin dubbed the town hall as “trash” and “absolutely ludicrous.” Similarly, leftist MSNBC host Chris Hayes said that inviting Trump on CNN was “hard to defend”.
On May 10, the day of the town hall, Alex Christy complained that a commentator accurately pointed out how young voters hate Trump anddon't like Republican transphobia, huffing in thresponse that the commentator "should’ve informed these young people that other people vote too."
For the event itself, Kevin Tober whined that it wasn't sycophantic enough to Trump:
Wednesday night’s CNN Town hall meeting at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire with former President Donald Trump was just as ridiculous as you would have guessed. From the very first moments until the end of the hour and a half long event, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins served not so much as a moderator for the town hall but more as a sparring partner with the former President. The night was so hostile to Trump that NewsBusters could have easily simply uploaded the entire event for you to watch. That would have been much easier than trying to decide the worst moments to bring to you.
After spending over 25 minutes arguing with Trump over the January 6 riots at the Capitol and relitigating the results of the 2020 presidential election, Collins finally got around to asking Trump real questions that normal Americans care about. The first was from a Republican voter about the out of control southern border.
[...]
This town hall hosted by CNN was a giant waste of time for all involved. Especially voters in the room and watching at home. Very few substantive questions were asked and instead it essentially became a debate between Trump & Collins.
Hours before this dumpster fire of a town hall began, Puck News published a piece titled “The Kaitlan Era Begins Tonight.” This "era" isn’t off to a good start, if tonight’s performance was any indication.
Tober didn't mention that Collins' background is in right-wing media as a writer for the Daily Caller, where whe wrote pieces about hot Syrian refugees and her bylines there have largely been removed (a la Alyssa Farah's work for WorldNetDaily).
