Mark Thompson. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery)
On Sunday afternoon, one day before Donald Trump was sworn into office as the 47th president, CNN's top journalists convened for an editorial meeting led by network chief Mark Thompson. Staff meetings before major news events are typical for the network. There are a lot of logistics and editorial matters to go over before going live on the air to cover weighty issues. But given the particular news that CNN was about to cover, this editorial meeting took on some heightened importance.
During the meeting, which was held virtually and attended by the likes of Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper, Thompson offered guidance about how he wanted to see the network cover Inauguration Day. Thompson indicated to attendees, I'm told, that he wanted his journalists to be forward-thinking and to avoid pre-judging Trump. He cautioned against expressing any outrage of their own, as many of the anchors who make up CNN's roster of journalists had previously done with regularity during Trump's first term.
Finally, I'm told, Thompson made it clear that he did not want…
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The Fourth Estate
Donald Trump at his inauguration ceremony. (Photo by Kevin Lamarque - Pool/Getty Images)
Trump's Inaugural Dip: Viewership for Donald Trump's second inauguration was down from his first and lower than Joe Biden's. The affair drew roughly 25 million average viewers, per Nielsen. Viewership peaked at…
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