CNN chief Mark Thompson reportedly told the cable network’s reporters to ease up on coverage of the controversial destruction of the East Wing—after he had a V.I.P. visit to the White House.
Although denied by CNN, the report from the Status newsletter appears to be the latest example of media bosses bending the knee before the Trump administration.
The historic White House East Wing was bulldozed last week to make way for President Donald Trump’s $300 million vanity project, a 90,000-square-foot ballroom that will be more than twice the size of the rest of the White House.
The teardown prompted widespread outrage. Among those criticizing the demolition of the 1902 structure were Chelsea Clinton, who said Trump was taking a “wrecking ball to our heritage,” and Ronald Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis, who called it “heartbreaking” and “complete destruction.”
Status reported that Thompson had a private meeting at the White House last Wednesday. It says staff at the network were “taken aback” when he suggested during a daily network editorial call the next morning that CNN ease up on its reporting of the East Wing’s demolition.
Thompson also said CNN viewers were not that interested in the story, according to two people familiar with the matter cited in the Status story.
A YouGov America survey last week showed that 50 percent of people disapproved of the White House refurbishment, and that 53 percent were against the East Wing being torn down. Only 24 percent of the 2,000 people polled approved of Trump’s ballroom designs.
The Status report also claimed that CNN staffers were cautious about what coverage may be discouraged next.
A CNN spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Beast that Thompson was at the White House last week, but they said there was “zero truth to the conjecture in this [Status] column that was not fact checked before publication.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Thompson, the chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, is a British media executive who was director-general of the BBC before becoming CEO of The New York Times.
Status noted that Thompson is also officially CNN’s editor-in-chief but his coverage suggestion struck colleagues as “bizarre” because he does not tend to get involved in editorial matters.
Status said Thompson’s White House visit “ostensibly” included promoting CNN’s new direct-to-consumer streaming product, and sourcing potential Trump administration officials to appear on the network.
Last week, CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery announced it was up for sale and said it had received “multiple” expressions of interest—insisting that Paramount Skydance, which has been circling the network under new boss David Ellison, was not the only suitor.
Ellison is, however, seen as the only potential CNN buyer who would be approved by the Trump administration’s broadcast regulators, with one adviser noting last week, “That’s the Trump card.”
Trump himself has regularly included CNN in the long list of media outlets he calls “fake news.”
Earlier this month, he called CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes “one of the worst reporters that you’ll ever see” before refusing to answer her question.
“CNN is dying like a dog,” he added, before slamming the network’s evening anchors: “I could take anybody off the street in Washington, D.C., they’d do a better job.”
In an interview earlier this month, Thompson attempted to clarify where CNN sits on the political spectrum.
“I don’t think our job is to be in the center,” he told Mediaite. “I think our job is to be out of the ring. It’s more about being fair-minded across the political spectrum and recognizing that the best ideas may come actually from the political edges. It’s not for us to say that the only good politics are from the middle... But we’re very comfortable to have a broad range of political voices on the air.”
“The strategically best positioning for CNN is that we are actually a news service,” he added, “as opposed to an opinion and debate service masquerading as a news service.”
He also rcompared Scott Jennings, CNN’s lightning rod MAGA contributor, to D’Artagnan, the hero of The Three Musketeers, saying, “he’s got his sword out and he’s got about four Democrats against him, but he spiked them all off.”
CNN is not the only big media firm embroiled in controversy over the teardown. Comcast, the parent company of NBC News, is one of the donors paying for the gaudy project. Its CEO Brian Roberts is also the hereditary owner, for now, of Versant, a new media group which includes MSNBC and CNBC.
