CNN Chief Mark Thomson visits White House, advises editors to 'ease off' on criticism.
On Wednesday, as Donald Trump tore down the East Wing to build his ballroom, the White House had a visitor who raised eyebrows across Washington. CNN chief Mark Thompson made a rare appearance at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
| The meeting was ostensibly about introducing to the administration the network’s new direct-to-consumer streaming product launching next week, laying the groundwork for officials to appear on CNN, a person familiar with the matter told Status. But given the swirl of speculation surrounding the cable network, with parent company Warner Bros. Discovery having publicly put itself up for auction, the question of Donald Trump’s animosity toward CNN, and how that might manifest itself in the process, is very much on people’s minds.
| The meeting could certainly have been regular business, as news networks have a vested interest in maintaining a relationship with the administration for coverage access. But people close to the situation say Thompson and WBD chief David Zaslav believe it is very important for CNN to have a functional relationship with the White House, and CNN anchor Jake Tapper—who recently conducted an interview with Trump via text message—has been lobbying for an interview with the president.
| Such a posture is nothing new for Zaslav, who said at a 2023 media conference—before Trump’s reelection—that “Republicans are back on the air” at CNN, adding that the network would become less of an “advocacy outlet” under new management.
| Still, staffers were taken aback the next morning, when Thompson suggested during the daily network editorial call that it should ease up on covering Trump’s East Wing demolition, claiming that their viewership isn’t all that interested in the story, according to two people familiar with the matter. The comment struck many as bizarre coming from Thompson, who despite carrying the editor in chief title generally tends not to wade too much into the minutia of the network’s editorial process.
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