[76 / 1 / 1]
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5646722-trump-cnn-sale-pressure/
CNN is finding itself in a familiar place as its parent company prepares to spin the network off as part of a megamerger: President Trump’s crosshairs.
Trump has indicated publicly and privately he wishes to see CNN operate under new ownership, a scenario that could come to fruition if Paramount, a massive media company increasingly friendly with the president, wins a hostile takeover bid for the cable news network and other assets belonging to Warner Bros. Discovery.
“It’s imperative that CNN be sold,” Trump told reporters at the White House this week. “I think CNN should be sold, because I think the people running CNN right now are either corrupt or incompetent.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed this sentiment hours later from the West Wing podium, pointing to a testy exchange she had with CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins on Thursday as “evidence” the outlet is in need of an editorial overhaul.
The latest line of attack underscores the frosty relationship between Trump and the cable news channel going back years.
CNN took heavy criticism from the right for its aggressive coverage of Trump’s first term and has made attempts to balance its coverage more recently, but it remains one of the president’s top mainstream media punching bags a year into his second administration.
His seizing on the Warner Bros. Discovery sale process is signaling the president sees CNN as vulnerable and is eager to make journalists at the outlet squirm, media and political observers say.
CNN is finding itself in a familiar place as its parent company prepares to spin the network off as part of a megamerger: President Trump’s crosshairs.
Trump has indicated publicly and privately he wishes to see CNN operate under new ownership, a scenario that could come to fruition if Paramount, a massive media company increasingly friendly with the president, wins a hostile takeover bid for the cable news network and other assets belonging to Warner Bros. Discovery.
“It’s imperative that CNN be sold,” Trump told reporters at the White House this week. “I think CNN should be sold, because I think the people running CNN right now are either corrupt or incompetent.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed this sentiment hours later from the West Wing podium, pointing to a testy exchange she had with CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins on Thursday as “evidence” the outlet is in need of an editorial overhaul.
The latest line of attack underscores the frosty relationship between Trump and the cable news channel going back years.
CNN took heavy criticism from the right for its aggressive coverage of Trump’s first term and has made attempts to balance its coverage more recently, but it remains one of the president’s top mainstream media punching bags a year into his second administration.
His seizing on the Warner Bros. Discovery sale process is signaling the president sees CNN as vulnerable and is eager to make journalists at the outlet squirm, media and political observers say.
