Joy Behar Rescinds Support For Trump Town Hall: “Was CNN Passing Out Kool-Aid?”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said CNN is rebuilding itself to be a news network that presents “both sides” of every issue rather than an “advocacy network” — comments coming as CNN continues to face a backlash over the town hall with Donald Trump last week. Zaslav, speaking at the MoffettNathanson Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York, said that previously the overall impression of CNN’s brand was “left-leaning.” That’s now changing, he said, citing a new YouGov poll finding an 11-point improvement in U.S. viewers’ trust in CNN. “Our view is, there’s advocacy networks on either side. We have the best journalists in the world. We need to show both sides of every issue,” he said.

“Republicans are back on the air. Republicans weren’t on the air,” on CNN, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told a media conference Thursday as he said the storied brand is moving to become less of an “advocacy network” under new leadership.

Naman Ramachandran Christiane Amanpour has spoken out against Donald Trump’s recent CNN town hall, where he described moderator Kaitlan Collins as a “nasty person.” “We know Trump and his tendencies, everyone does, he just seizes the stage and dominates. No matter how much flack the moderator tries to aim at the incoming, it doesn’t often work. I would have dropped the mic at ‘nasty person,’ but then that’s me,” Amanpour said on Wednesday to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Amanpour was accepting the Columbia Journalism Award and delivering the school’s commencement speech. Amanpour, who is CNN’s chief international anchor, said she had met with CNN chair and CEO Chris Licht earlier this week and they “had a very robust exchange of views” about the town hall. Licht “welcomed” the exchange but stood by his decision to hold the event, according to Amanpour.

believes they did a public good. Many of CNN’s on-air talent have expressed the same sentiment, including primetime mainstay Anderson Cooper, who the day after the show insisted the town hall informed viewers of things they might not know about Trump — and even, essentially, said critics were being closed-minded.Amanpour didn’t mention Cooper by name, but in her remarks she seemed to respond directly to him. “The fact the American people voted 3 times against Trump and Trumpism — 2018, 2020, 2022 — also speaks volumes,” she said.

Jason Sudeikis has admitted Donald Trump inspired him to change the character of Ted Lasso.

CNN Worldwide CEO Chris Licht confirmed that Kaitlan Collins would be taking over the 9 p.m. ET primetime slot, filling a major hole in the network schedule as it faces sagging ratings.

“The View,” co-host Joy Behar revealed some juicy information about the star – including how she goes to the bathroom while wearing a bathing suit.Behar, 80, started off by applauding Stewart, 81, for her hard work in preparing to “meet the challenge” — and beating stereotypes about aging — but then launched right into a story about an encounter she once had with the lifestyle mogul. “One time I met her and I said to her, ‘Martha, what do you wear as a brassiere?’ Because my generation says, ‘brassiere,’ by the way,” Behar said.

This has to be the weirdest sentence you’ll read today: The Village People are currently feuding with former President of the United States Donald Trump.Victor Wills, the lead singer of The Village People, is reiterating his request to Trump, imploring him to stop using the band’s music. Only this time, things have gone a bit further, and he and the group seem ready to escalate things further if they must.

Donald Trump has annoyed the Village People again, this time by hosting a party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida which featured a group of men dressed up like the legendary disco group and performing their hits.The former President has regularly made use of Village People songs ‘YMCA’ and ‘Macho Man’ at his political events, of course. The group – and especially founder member and lead singer Victor Willis – have been very clear throughout that they really wish he wouldn’t.When it comes to copyright matters, political rallies and other events staged by Trump usually rely on blanket licences issued by the music industry’s collecting societies.And while there is a specific licence for overtly political events that provides some opt-outs for songwriters, it’s difficult for artists to stop the likes of Trump from using their music outright by simply enforcing copyright law.It’s a little more clear cut if music is used by politicians without permission in campaign videos, and Village People label Scorpio Music did threaten legal action after Trump shared a video made by a third party that featured the group’s music.

her lawsuit against Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll and her attorney, Robbie Kaplan, appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” to talk about that case. But of course Maddow brought up a related matter: CNN’s ill-advised, poorly received Trump town hall.At one point, Maddow asked Kaplan and Carroll a question that critics of the town hall have asked since it aired — could the disparaging comments Trump made about Carroll during the event get him sued again? According to Kaplan, “definitely.”You’ll recall that during the town hall, Trump repeatedly defamed Carroll.

Donald Trump inspired him to make changes to the character of Ted Lasso.The actor discussed the origins of the character in an interview with The Guardian, where he explained that Lasso was originally more “belligerent” before the former US president, and the culture surrounding him, prompted changes.“It was the culture we were living in,” Sudeikis said. “I’m not terribly active online and it even affected me.

before reading the post in full. “That is not a parody!” he added incredulously.

sexual abuse and defamation against E. Jean Carroll. “The problem for them is that no matter how hard they try to spin themselves as the party of family values to create fake controversies, that’s hard to do with a straight face given the de facto leader of their party has now been branded a sexual abuser,” Psaki said on Sunday’s “Inside” on MSNBC.She specifically sniped prominent Republican figures like senators Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio for hypocritical statements made in their former president’s defense.

EXCLUSIVE: Fox is getting the special forces back together.

McKinley Franklin editor Jason Sudeikis’ affable football coach in the Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” would have had a very different demeanor if it wasn’t for Donald Trump.  While speaking with The Guardian, Sudeikis dished on the early origins of Ted Lasso. He revealed that the character o was initially conceptualized to be much more “belligerent,” but that observing the behavior of Trump forced a change. “It was the culture we were living in,” Sudeikis said. “I’m not terribly active online and it even affected me. Then you have Donald Trump coming down the escalator. I was like, ‘OK, this is silly,’ and then what he unlocked in people.”

“Ted Lasso” is in the home stretch as the critically acclaimed Apple TV+ series prepares to complete its three-season run at the end of the month.

Donald Trump’s town hall was the hot topic across Sunday political talk shows, including on ABC’s “This Week,” where former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said the audience of Trump supporters looked awfully similar to the ones he saw when he was running for president in 2016.“I don’t care how they introduced them. I know a lot of those people in that audience.

told Geist on “Sunday Today.” “He’s gonna say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna keep losing.’ Well, Donald Trump has convinced his supporters they haven’t been losing, they’ve been winning —  ‘the deep state and Democrats and the media have been in cahoots to sort of rig it against them’ — that’s the problem here.”“What I noticed this week is the just sheer paralysis that Republican elected officials have when it comes to dealing with Trump,” the “Meet the Press” moderator continued, pointing to Tuesday’s verdict that found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll.With the town hall taking place just one day after the decision was revealed, Trump used the platform to continue to defame and shame the writer as his derogatory comments were met with laughter from the GOP-leaning live audience.“So here he is convicted by a jury of defamation about a sexual assault and it was crickets from his party,” Todd said, noting that even former VP Mike Pence — someone who Todd says has built his political career on the idea of “wearing your morality on your sleeve” — refused to take a stand on the topic, instead saying that only the media was interested in the verdict.“I don’t think they have figured out how to take him on yet, and that’s Ron DeSantis as well,” Todd concluded.“I don’t think they have figured out how to take him on yet.” – @ChuckTodd on how other 2024 Republican candidates will challenge former President Trump.

Jason Sudeikis’s award-winning creation of Ted Lasso was inspired, in part, by the arrival of Donald Trump on the political scene. 

“Friends” characters as toddlers.Luca and Anna Allievi, both 33, said they started creating the images “for fun” while their 1-year-old daughter Celeste was asleep.The youthful pictures of Rachel, Ross, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Phoebe have been doin’ so well online that the couple has pivoted to generating realistic baby photos of former President Donald Trump, British politician Boris Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.“It started as a game, something we did for fun,” Luca, a bio-technologist from Milan, told SWNS. “The images are really realistic.”Luca initially tried to imagine puppies and his own cats as characters from “Harry Potter” and other dramas.“Luca has a fantastic imagination,” gushed Anna, who sells machinery parts.

that he hated Donald Trump “passionately.” But less than 2 months earlier he was singing a dramatically different tune, newly leaked texts reveal. In an exchange with his senior producer, obtained by the Daily Beast — yes, it’s yet more leaked evidence that emerged during discovery in the Dominion defamation lawsuit against Fox News — the recently fired host was so upset about the unusually negative coverage Fox was giving Trump that he said he was “happy to start threating people” to make it stop.The text exchange happened Nov. 19, 2020, as Fox News was suffering a severe drop in ratings caused by the exodus of viewers angry that it had (accurately) called the election for Joe Biden and then — temporarily — refused to support Trump’s constant lying about the loss.

Friday on “The View.” The “Because I Said So” actress, 77, stopped by the daytime talk show with her “Book Club: The Next Chapter” co-stars Jane Fonda, Mary Steenburgen, and Candice Bergen. Their new film, which hit theaters Friday, is a sequel to the foursome’s 2018 movie “Book Club.”“View” co-hosts Joy Behar, Sara Haines, and Alyssa Farah Griffin asked the legendary actresses about aging and their Hollywood memories.But when Griffin got to Keaton, “The First Wives Club” star seemed nervous, even calling the live studio audience “scary.”“All of you have made me think about aging differently, and I think it’s so powerful to see you can just have so much fun at any age. Now, Diane, I have to ask…” Griffin began.

According to The Guardian, Trump saw the night as a success. And he wasn’t the only one, of course.

the pile of people who believe the the Donald Trump town hall CNN aired on Wednesday was a disastrous mistake. On Thursday’s episode of “All-In,” Hayes laid out in great detail why he thinks it was such a bad idea for CNN to give the disgraced ex-president such a prominent platform.

@acyn on Twitter).“About last night: the 70 minutes I spent on stage in New Hampshire with former President Donald Trump was a major inflection point in the Republican party’s search for its nominee, and potentially the starting line for America’s next presidential race,” Collins said.“It’s important to remember that he is, right now, the GOP front-runner, that he running, as noted, while being criminally indicted, found civilly liable and under investigation for everything from his handling of classified documents to his business empire.”Collins’ comments come as CNN remains at the center of a heavy backlash over the Trump town hall. That backlash is complex, but the unifying point is that it was an irresponsible mistake at every level.

For the third time today, a prominent figure at CNN attempted to reframe the network’s roundly-criticized town hall with former president Donald Trump on Wednesday night, an event moderated by Kaitlyn Collins.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper devoted a portion of his primetime program to address the backlash against the network for its town hall with Donald Trump, in which the Republican spewed lies and misinformation before a friendly, cheering audience.

Has Melania Trump changed her tune?

ON ELECTION FRAUD:Right off the bat, Trump claimed “it was a rigged election. And it’s a shame that we had to go through it. It’s very bad for our country.” Collins responded: “It was not a rigged election, it was not a stolen election.

A source is shedding light on Melania Trump‘s relationship with Donald Trump after he was found liable of battery and defamation.

Well, this was a predictably horrible idea.

CNN’s town hall with Donald Trump beat the cable news competition, as expected, with an average of 3.12 million viewers, according to early Nielsen numbers.

CNN’s polarizing town hall with Donald Trump Wednesday evening, is expected to take over the network’s 9 p.m. primetime spot, according to media reports.Collins, who currently co-anchors “CNN This Morning” alongside solely co-anchor Poppy Harlow after Don Lemon was ousted from the network last month, is likely to move into the vacant time slot, which has not had a permanent host in over a year.Puck first reported the news, and no official announcement has been made.

drew wide criticisms, including from CNN employees, Alyssa Farah Griffin wasn’t among the voices thrashing the event. In fact, the host of “The View” defended the broadcast on Thursday morning, arguing that Trump lost votes because of it.Naturally, the town hall was the first of the day’s Hot Topics, with most of the hosts torching it.

CNN Worldwide CEO Chris Licht defended the network’s town hall with Donald Trump amid criticism that the network was giving the former president a platform to spew lies and misinformation.

Donald Trump‘s town hall on Wednesday, as he defended his decision to showcase Trump while on a call to CNN staff Thursday morning.“I absolutely unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night,” Licht said on the call, per Semafor media reporter Max Tani.Licht also said that he was “aware” that there have been “opinions and backlash” to the event but “there is so much that we learned last night of what another Trump presidency looked like.” “While we all may have been uncomfortable hearing people clapping, that was also an important part of the story because the people in that audience represent a large swath of America,” Licht said on the call. The CEO also said that the “mistake” media made in the past was “ignoring that those people exist just like you cannot ignore that President Trump exists.”On a call this morning with CNN staff, network CEO Chris Licht says he is “aware that there has been people with opinions and backlash,” but that "there is so much that we learned last night of what another Trump presidency looked like.”CNN did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.On Wednesday, former president Donald Trump took the stage at St.