Adding to the firestorm CNN has found itself in following the town hall with indicted former president Donald Trump, now CNN hosts are being roasted for toeing the company line and defending the show.
To the growing legion of critics who have pointed to the leadership of new CNN head honcho Chris Licht, who has been changing the culture at CNN to be less confrontational, leading to the wholesale shuffling of host's timeslots and duties, add broadcast journalist and former CNN morning show host Soledad O'Brien.
With Licht defending his decision to give Trump a forum to talk over CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins, O'Brien singled out Collins' colleagues Dana Bash and Poppy Harlow for admirably rushing to her defense – but added another reason they felt compelled to also not point out the position Licht put the up-and-comer Collins in.
On Twitter she first wrote, "You can tell this is true because the tone from the network is not -- we nailed it! It's: trying to 'explain' to viewers the absolute mess they witnessed on TV. It's bad. Terrible for credibility, whatever the CNN boss says, and a horrible way to be launched as a new nighttime anchor. All confirming - -it was bad. And also, as some folks texted me: sad."
As for Bash and Harlow, she claimed they were trying to avoid the fate of the recently fired Don Lemon -- who O'Brien has also criticized -- who got on Licht's bad side.
Responding to their Collins tweets, she wrote, "All of this verifiably untrue – she was given an impossible task. Had some big misses. Was overrun frequently. The crowd was awful. The format horrible. It was a disaster and the ratings were pretty decent (a plus!) I get it ladies. Nobody wants to be DonLemoned by the new boss."
