‘You Went To War With Your Boss’: CNN’s Oliver Darcy Pressed On Fracas Over Trump ‘Spectacle Of Lies’ Town Hall

Former Reliable Sources author Oliver Darcy was pressed by Mediaite on the fracas over his criticism of a CNN town hall with ex-President Donald Trump that Darcy described as a “spectacle of lies.”

Darcy was a guest on this week’s edition of Mediaite’s new Press Club podcast, hosted by Aidan McLaughlin.

In their wide-ranging interview, McLaughlin drilled down on the conflict that erupted between Darcy and since-fired CEO Chris Licht after the much-derided event, asking Darcy just “how uncomfortable was that?”:

I want to talk about your time at CNN. It was fairly dramatic at the end there, I would say. You worked for years with Brian Stelter. He gets fired by Chris Licht. You take over Reliable Sources and clashed with Chris Licht when, after the infamous town hall with Donald Trump, you wrote in Reliable Sources, “It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening.” In Tim Alberta’s big Atlantic piece that preceded Licht’s firing, he said that Chris was shocked by your analysis and saw it as a betrayal. He said on the editorial call the next morning, “I absolutely, unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night.” You effectively went to war with your boss. Why?

Well, I had an interesting role at CNN, which was to be a media reporter calling balls and strikes, and I never want to look someone in the eye and say, I give CNN a pass because I work here, because that’s terrible. Not only for my credibility. I viewed it as terrible for my own credibility, and something I would not do because it would violate my own ethics, but also terrible for the Reliable Sources brand. Because that was founded to provide that analytical lens. And if it’s terrible for the Reliable Sources brand, it’s terrible for the CNN brand, because if these brands don’t stand for something, if they don’t really mean something, then what are they? Right? And so my job, as uncomfortable as it was, was to say, I watched that town hall and I would say most people who watched that town hall did not think that that was a great event. And that was certainly the mood inside CNN at the time. And it was certainly the mood outside CNN. So I understand that was not something pleasant for someone to read, especially if they’re effectively signing your paycheck. But that’s also the job I was hired to do. And so I was executing the mission that I was given. And it’s something I’m proud of, and I think CNN should be proud of the fact that they for so long had someone in the building who is willing to criticize the network if it was warranted, right?

How uncomfortable did it get?

Well, it’s uncomfortable, but I don’t know another position — I was trying to think about this. I had such an unusual job when I was at CNN. What other person gets to openly, very publicly, not only in the company, but externally criticize not your boss or your boss’s boss, but your boss’s boss’s boss. And sometimes, your boss’s boss’s boss’s boss. It’s pretty crazy, right? So you don’t get comfortable doing that. It’s strange. I respect a lot of people there and I can disagree with them. I think there’s that as well. But you do see people in the elevator. But it had to be done. That was the mission. So no one ever said it was easy.

Then Licht summoned you to his office, and there were top executives present, and you were told that the coverage of the Trump town hall had been “too emotional” and Licht stressed the importance of remaining “dispassionate.” What happened there?

I found that interesting because I don’t really feel like I’m an emotional person. I feel like I’m often very dispassionate. I definitely reject that claim. I think I was accurately reflecting the very broad sentiment, both internal and external. And I think it’s fair to say that Chris and I disagreed on that. And there was a meeting and he felt one way and I obviously felt another way. And I made that clear, I think, in the meeting that I respectfully stood by what I had written that night, and I think I still do today. I think it aged pretty well. The thing about media reporting is that when I was a media reporter at CNN, my job was not to be CNN public relations, my job was to cover the industry as fairly as possible. And so that means at times criticizing NBC or ABC or The New York Times. But that does not mean giving CNN a pass. And if they want someone to give CNN a pass, I’m not their guy. And so that’s effectively what I conveyed at that moment.

Watch above via Mediaite’s new Press Club podcast. Watch the full episode here.

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