CNN chief executive Mark Thompson has called on the network to hold Donald Trump‘s administration to account without entering the ring with the U.S. president.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the former New York Times and BBC boss said it was not CNN’s job to fight political regimes, but to report on them without prejudice.
“We shouldn’t slip into the idea that part of our job is to oppose political forces as such. Our job is to cover the political contest, rather than to head into the ring and start throwing punches ourselves,” Thompson said.
The analogy was notable — and perhaps not an accident — after one of Trump’s most famous run-ins with CNN in 2017, during which he tweeted a video showing himself beating a man with a CNN logo superimposed on his face. “Trump punches CNN in a juvenile tweet,” was the headline from CNN’s Brian Stelter at the time.
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In further comments to the FT, Thompson said CNN must “report on the government of the day in whichever country it is” in a way that “is accurate, is fair-minded, doesn’t labour under its own prejudices or biases, and doesn’t shy [away] from holding power to account.”
During the same interview, Thompson said he “strongly” supported The Associated Press in the agency’s efforts to win back access to the White House.
The AP reported that a journalist and photographer were barred from an Oval Office news conference on Monday. This was despite a federal court order that forbids Trump’s administration from punishing the AP for refusing to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Thompson said the AP was a “valuable partner,” and that “a self-organising pool of people covering Washington D.C., and entities like the White House Correspondents’ Association, are genuinely useful in co-ordinating coverage.”
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