Jon Stewart Bashes CNN Over Trump Town Hall: Network Trying To Get Back Into Former Pres's Good Graces

Jon Stewart has a different take on the week’s chorus of commentary inspired by Donald Trump’s CNN town hall during which a boisterous group of on-stage supporters drowned out the few challenging questions interviewers attempted to squeeze in.

Commenting on the still reverberating shock waves and internal conflict apparently going still going on at CNN, Stewart said those who are pushing back at Trump’s discourse are missing the point. CNN, contends Stewart, is on a campaign to win back the former president.

“Dear TV,” Stewart wrote on Twitter Saturday. “The problem w the Trump Town Hall wasn’t platforming…or a fragile siloed audience unable to be exposed to newsworthy opinions antithetical to their own…the problem was an event that was clearly negotiated to Trump’s approval. An ode to access.”

In CNNs attempt to get back into Trump’s good graces, Stewart said, the network was acting like a perverted Oliver Twist begging for ratings.

“We promise good sir…we are no longer Fake News!!!” Stewart tweeted. “An enemy of the people!!! Let us prove it to you!!! We are fair and good and will do this however you would like…just come back…”

On Sunday, The Hill quoted longtime Trump friend and advisor, Michael Caputo who was not in favor of Trump doing the town hall on a network that had pilloried him for so many years.

“I was not in favor of this and once again Trump proved me wrong,” said Caputo. “But he didn’t just win, he completely pinned CNN.” 

CNN Responds

Meanwhile, CNN CEO Chris Licht defended the network, claiming that airing numerous provably false and misleading statements by a presidential candidate was a public service to the nation. Slate noted that Licht’s comments “implicitly challenged those who argued that handing Donald Trump a live TV show harmed American democracy—including those employed by his own network.”

Stewart ended his thread by stating that the town hall brought viewers no new information about Trump and his backers, though it did change his view of the cable news network: “I learned nothing from this town hall about Trump and his most ardent supporters I haven’t known since 2016. I learned a lot about CNN.”

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