Why CNN’s Right To Hold Its Trump Town Hall

Andy Ostroy
3 min readMay 6, 2023

CNN has been on the hot-seat since it announced it will be holding a televised prime-time Town Hall in New Hampshire with Donald Trump Wednesday night.

In expressing the criticism shared by many, Norman Ornstein, the eminent political scholar, said the invitation to Trump “legitimizes a man under indictment, currently on trial, with more indictments to come, who incited a violent insurrection against the country and its constitution and democracy”…and that to Trump it’s “a godsend — a network he hates bowing down to him and giving him attention and airtime.”

Defending the network’s position, its political director David Chalian said “CNN goes all in on covering the presidential campaign, and a key piece of that is town halls with the candidates,” …and that the Town Hall “helps inform voters about their choices.”

Chalien added that Trump is the Republican front-runner for the nomination, stating, “For us, our job, despite his unique status, is the same. We have to hold him to account for his words and his actions. … I don’t think our mission as journalists is anything less than to cover the news. And he’s the news.”

And I 1000% agree.

I believe it’s critical to our democracy. To free speech and the First Amendment. It’s also highly practical. There are those who’d…

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Andy Ostroy
Andy Ostroy

Written by Andy Ostroy

Director, producer, podcaster, writer, resistor, non-profit-supporter of women filmmakers

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