'Spectacle of lies': CNN called out by its own media reporter for Trump town hall

Critics have piled on CNN for its decision to give former President Donald Trump a forum to spout lies about a wide variety of topics, and now the network is getting called out by its own senior media reporter.

CNN's Oliver Darcy writes in his latest newsletter that "it's hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening."

While Darcy credits CNN's Kaitlan Collins for doing her best to provide real-time fact checks on the former president's falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election, she was ultimately powerless to stop him from repeating them again and again and again.

"Trump frequently ignored or spoke over Collins throughout the evening as he unleashed a firehose of disinformation upon the country, which a sizable swath of the GOP continues to believe," Darcy contends. "A professional lie machine, Trump fired off falsehoods at a rapid clip while using his bluster to overwhelm Collins, stealing command of the stage at some points of the town hall."

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In fact, Darcy said that the town hall was so bad that it reminded him of 2016, when the media was completely unprepared to provide a check to a presidential candidate who also happened to be a pathological liar.

Darcy then turned the tables on CNN boss Chris Licht and challenged him to take some accountability for the fiasco.

"CNN and new network boss Chris Licht are facing a fury of criticism — both internally and externally over the event," he said. "How Licht and other CNN executives address the criticism in the coming days and weeks will be crucial. Will they defend what transpired at Saint Anselm College? Or will they express some regret?"