> The description of Licht in the immediate aftermath of the Town Hall is pathetic, and almost makes you feel sorry for him. It reminds me of David Niven at then of *The Bridge on The River Kwai*, when he suddenly realizes what a colossal and dangerous asshole he has been (though Licht lacks the good grace to sacrifice himself to fix things).
*cough* Alec Guinness *cough* > For me, Licht’s problem is that newsmakers have learned to game the system and weaponize their agendas. Interviews with politicians turn out to generate some heat and no light and politicians have learned that they can lie shamelessly and not pay any consequences. Trump specifically has no fear of television cameras and he can quickly read whether he needs the demeanor for a deposition or a rally and he can effortlessly adjust. Yep, another argument against live interviews. Of course, when ratings are your primary concern, "live" is the bright shiny object that cable news can't resist. And agreeing with the feedback, Licht probably shortened his runway with that article. On Sunday, June 4, 2023 at 7:18:15 AM UTC-4 PGage wrote: > Errata: I was misled by a news report - I was able to copy and paste the > piece into a Word file, and it is more like 15,500 words, not 9,000. > > I think there is no question Trump is newsworthy, andI disagree with some > of my friends who argue that credible journalists should ignore him. But > Licht makes an ass of himself when he arrogantly asserts (as he dies in the > article, several times, prior to the Town Hall) that he doesn’t get > whatever one is so worried about, as he has figured out how to handle Trump > (he thought it was just to not overreact, and calmly confront him with > contrary facts when necessary). Again, this criminally distorts or > misunderstands the problem, both with Trump and with Zucker’s CNN. > > The description of Licht in the immediate aftermath of the Town Hall is > pathetic, and almost makes you feel sorry for him. It reminds me of David > Niven at then of *The Bridge on The River Kwai*, when he suddenly realizes > what a colossal and dangerous asshole he has been (though Licht lacks the > good grace to sacrifice himself to fix things). > > I don’t have an easy answer to the Trump problem, but I think giving him > an audience of fanboys to play to live is not part of it. A public figure > whose behavior is unconstrained by shame regarding bad behavior or lies can > not be managed simply being fact checked, even by a more experienced > journalist. They should have had a more balanced audience, with questions > video recorded, and recorded all of Trump’s answers, and then edited it for > broadcast an hour or two later. With his record, if you put him otherwise > unconstrained live on your air, you become partly responsible for the > damage his lies and misbehavior cause. > > And yes, if I had taken over CNN from Zaslov, the first think I would have > done was fire Lemon’s smug and performative, “it’s-all-about-me” ass. > > And, in case it has not already been noted here for the record, best > recording that David Leavy, a leading Zaslov-whisperer who no doubt will > continue to report directly to him, was appointed the COO at CNN the day > before the Atlantic pice was published, a move widely perceived as at best > an ominous vote of no-confidence in Licht by WBD: > > https://deadline.com/2023/06/david-leavy-cnn-worldwide-coo-1235398003/ > > > On Sat, 3 Jun 2023 at 1:56 PM Paul Murray <[email protected]> wrote: > >> It's available in Apple News, for anyone with one of their devices. >> That's how I read it last night. >> >> As much as I loathe the man, interviewing Trump is unfortunately >> newsworthy. The town hall format only works when the subject is operating >> is good faith and the audience composition is somewhat representative of >> the population as a whole. Filling the audience with Trump supporters -- >> *which Licht pushed for* -- was completely indefensible. As somebody famous >> tweeted, Will CNN be reporting it as a contribution in kind to the >> campaign? Not having people who have previously interviewed TFG provide >> advice to the less-experienced interviewer, just plain dumb. >> >> The author clearly spent a lot of time with Licht, and at one point in >> the article it becomes clear that Licht's personal trainer has more sense >> than he does, at least in some respects. >> >> Also noted: Both Colbert and Scarborough advised him not to take the job. >> And when the subject's biggest fan to appear in the article is Frank Luntz >> -- well, that says something. (Zaslov played cat and mouse, not wanting to >> go on the record, then agreeing to, then changing the terms -- to which the >> author correctly said no.) >> >> I couldn't tell if Licht has lost all self-awareness, or is in >> overwhelming denial about how poorly this is going. >> >> On the positive side, I completely got his frustration with Don Lemon. >> >> He's doing what Zaslov and John Malone want, so even if he goes, the >> mission will continue under someone else. >> >> On Saturday, June 3, 2023 at 12:42:08 PM UTC-4 Bob Jersey wrote: >> >>> No, it isn't... the links must be shared by a $ubscriber to the provider >>> in question, through whichever social channel (or through an email message, >>> in my case, to b**j*****@ptd.net, figure it out) so that more specific >>> codes are part of the URL (this is also how the NYT handles them). I can >>> not go right to their tweetybox and open a story without seeing the *To >>> read the full story, start your free trial today* box at bottom-window >>> in the resultant page. >>> B >>> >>> PGage, June 3rd, in part: >>> >>> Very long (9000 words) and very long awaited. I found it was easy to get >>> around the Atlantic paywall be accessing it through the many links on >>> Twitter (is it always that easy to get around paywalls?). >>> >>> -- >> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> > To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/02e34642-b7b6-4af6-a683-3a07fe9c5a93n%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/02e34642-b7b6-4af6-a683-3a07fe9c5a93n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > Sent from Gmail Mobile > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/5bc93dfa-e933-4bf3-ba40-28e14e064d0dn%40googlegroups.com.
