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Dialing Down the Donald

CNN's new boss does not want The Trump Show to drown out coverage of other stories. But with Trump constantly setting the world on fire, can he succeed in striking that balance?

Oliver Darcy
Oliver Darcy

Nov 14, 2024

Dialing Down the Donald

CNN's new boss does not want The Trump Show to drown out coverage of other stories. But with Trump constantly setting the world on fire, can he succeed in striking that balance?

Oliver Darcy
Oliver Darcy

Nov 14, 2024

CNN boss Mark Thompson. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery)

Mark Thompson does not want CNN to revert back to the wall-to-wall coverage of the Donald Trump White House that defined it in its previous life.

During one of the network's regular all-hands editorial meetings this week, I'm told that the CNN boss outlined the coverage principles he would like to see the network stick to in 2025 and beyond. Thompson did not mention Trump by name, but his message was clear: The Trump Show is not the only important story in the U.S. or across the globe and it should not be treated as such.

Thompson, I’m told, underscored that there are…

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The Information Wars

Alex Jones. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)

Not Satire: The Onion has successfully acquired Infowars, as we were first to report Thursday morning. The satirical news outlet purchased Alex Jones' conspiracy empire at a court-ordered bankruptcy auction aimed at providing the Sandy Hook families some of the $1.5 billion they are owed by the right-wing media personality. As part of the deal, The Onion, owned by Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson and led by chief executive Ben Collins, acquired Infowars' website, product inventory, customers lists, social media accounts, and intellectual property.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But Collins told me that…

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Authors

Oliver Darcy

Jon Passantino

Natalie Korach

Brian Lowry

Status is the definitive nightly briefing that cuts through the noise to inform readers about what is really happening in the corridors of media power.

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