CNN’s Christiane Amanpour publicly criticized the network for its decision to hold a town hall event with former President Donald Trump while giving the commencement address to journalism students at Columbia University. NewsNation host Dan Abrams took umbrage with the statements by the well-respected journalist.
Amanpour told students she had clashed with CNN CEO Chris Licht over the network’s decision and subsequent defense of the event. However, Abrams believes she showcased her own biases in her remarks.
“She’s one of those rare journalists you really shouldn’t, you really can’t, criticize if you want to remain in the good graces of the media elite. She speaks at the most elite functions and has the highest connections in media and government. But I don’t really care about remaining in the media elite,” Abrams admitted. “I own a website that critiques media, so everyone in the media is already mad at me, and I try to call them like I see them. So while she does deserve the praise, she also has shown herself to be self-righteous and overtly liberal.
“I agree that the format was a disaster, even if you believe that CNN should have had the event with former President Trump. Then she makes it, inevitably, about her. How she was brave enough to take on the big, bad leader of CNN for this issue…oh, please. Everyone is criticizing the guy, from the left in particular. It’s not any show of bravery to confront the CNN president on this.
“But then came the self-importance, when she announced how she would have bravely stormed off the stage,” after Trump called Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person”.
The Dan Abrams Live host then took issue with Amanpour’s “I’ve been in the ring with these people for a long time” comments, saying that the encapsulation shows she believes she’s better than Collins.
“The main reasons people hate the media is what they perceive as bias and arrogance. Faking objectivity while bragging to journalism about how much bolder she would have been as the moderator is exactly why so many non-journalists despise what we do.”
