The most noteworthy part of last night’s CNN Town Hall/Summerslam with Donald Trump was all the clapping.
Trump would belittle his hapless interviewer or lay the groundwork for the next Insurrection, and the audience of “undecided” GOP voters would hoot and holler like Jerry Springer just brought out a guy’s midget mistress.
It was ugly, obviously. But not if you are new CNN C.E.O. Chris Licht, who said this during the following day’s CNN editorial call:
This quote raises an interesting question: Was Chris Licht alive in 2016?
I ask because, if you were living and sentient in the run-up to the 2016 election, basically all you saw on CNN was seas of White people cheering for Donald Trump.
From January to November 2020, they might as well have renamed their primetime hour “Yokels Hooting for Trump.” CNN would cancel whatever actual reporting they had for the 8PM hour and send it live to whatever Monster Truck arena Trump was disparaging Mexicans at and let him rip, and oh how the crowds would roar.
Wolf Blitzer’s job for an entire year was just introducing Trump rallies. And even if you did not watch the Trump Applause Hour, CNN helpfully installed a permanent countdown clock on its screen, so that you would always know the next time you could watch Trump getting applauded.
Also, in the hours leading up to Trump rallies, CNN dispatched Jim Acosta to stand in front of hollering Trump fans with wrestling signs.
Was Chris Licht alive for this?
I am an Investigate Journalist, so I checked Chris Licht’s Wikipedia page. It says he was born in 1971, and that he never died, and is still alive. That means he was living for the 2016 election, and surely must have been aware of the nonstop coverage of screaming Trump loyalists on the network he now runs.
Just to cover all my bases though, I texted a friend who is a licensed medical doctor.
I asked: “If a person was born in 1971, and is still alive, and never died…They would have been alive in 2016, right?” I will update this post when I get a response.
There is probably a compelling case for handing over your network to Donald Trump and letting him rile up his base while making your star anchor look like a toddler holding a microphone.
But “The Media didn’t show people clapping for Donald Trump” is probably the weakest argument I’ve heard yet.
“Letting people know Donald Trump has fans” is not Journalism. Also, you do not need to watch a 90-minute live advertisement for the Trump campaign to know it. Look, here’s an article by CNN reporter Harry Enten, a journalist you employ to inform people:
Anyway, I am going to keep digging into the question of whether Chris Licht was alive in 2016. If you have any tips — photographs of him at the premiere of Rogue One; a Letterboxed review he left of Deadpool, whatever — please let me know. Otherwise, I am truly at a loss.