CNN Chief Tells Staff to be ‘Fair Minded’ in Covering Trump

Just prior to the inauguration CNN CEO Mark Thompson sent a clear message to his staff on what he expected of the network’s coverage heading into the second Trump administration.
According to the Status newsletter which was founded by former CNN Reliable Sources host Oliver Darcy, Thompson cautioned staffers “against expressing any outrage of their own” while covering the inauguration.
Thompson, who previously served as the president and CEO of The New York Times addressed the staff at a virtual editorial meeting to discuss CNN’s coverage of the upcoming inaugural activities. Thompson “made it clear that he did not want the coverage to relitigate the past,”—alluding to CNN’s openly anti-Trump stance during his first term in office.
In what would be an abrupt change Thompson told the staff to avoid editorializing and to steer coverage away from Trump’s legal problems and instead focus on Trump’s second term in office and to be ‘open-minded” about the next four years.
In a second meeting a few days later Thompson told the staff to be “tough-minded” in covering Trump but to also be “fair-minded.”
The message from Thompson marks a sea-change in how he wants the network to cover Trump for the next four years and may be related to the financial challenges CNN is facing.
During a recent defamation trial which CNN lost it was revealed that while the network was still profitable that revenue had decreased from $2.2 billion in 2021 to $1.8 billion in 2023 as viewership declined steeply. The network also announced last week that they were laying off 200 staffers and accelerating their digital plans where they hope readers will cough up $3.99 a month for content.