CNN Boss: Trump Will Not Be Muzzled, CNN Not an 'Advocacy Network'

May 6th, 2023 3:04 PM

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’ The View 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”. 

The Warner Bros. executive pushed back against criticism,  telling Squawk Box co-anchor Joe Kernen, that “the U.S. is a divided government, we need to hear both voices, that’s what you see, Republicans are on the air at CNN, Democrats are on the air, all voice should be heard on the air at CNN.”

But Zaslav’s attempt to make CNN out to be an impartial network didn’t pass the smell test for Kernen.  Zaslav squirmed a bit when Kernen asked him if CNN was an advocacy network, saying only, “everybody has got to make a judgment on that based on how they feel.” When Kernen suggested, “well the last guy [Jeff Zucker] wouldn’t have put him on probably, even if he was the front-runner,” Zaslav did not deny it. 

Conservatives are under attack! Contact CNN at 404-827-1500 and demand the outlet not cave to leftist pressure and provide equal footing for all candidates in the 2024 presidential race.