CNN Parent Company CEO Argues Network Needs ‘Both Sides of Every Issue’ Day After Amanpour Slammed ‘Bothsidesism’

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Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told the MoffettNathanson Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York on Thursday that CNN needs “to show both sides of every issue” in order to rebrand from a “left-leaning” network.

“Our view is there’s advocacy networks on either side. We have the best journalists in the world. We need to show both sides of every issue,” Zaslav said.

“CNN should be the place that people come for the best version of the truth and for journalism,” he added.

Zaslav told the audience that CNN CEO Chris Licht has been “working hard” to move the network to the center and boasted that “Republicans are back on the air.” Variety reported that Zaslav even offered some numbers, “According to Zaslav, CNN hosted 75 House GOP members during the contentious four days of voting for House speaker Kevin McCarthy, 41 of which went on CNN before they went on Fox News.”

Zaslav’s remarks came a day after veteran international anchor Christiane Amanpour spoke candidly about Licht and the network’s recent Trump town hall while delivering the commencement address at Columbia Journalism School on Wednesday. The town hall has resulted in reports of widespread turmoil and frustration from inside CNN as talent has spoken out publicly against it – although often anonymously.

“I want to do what’s right and empathize with and acknowledge all of those who need to trust us at CNN. I understand that for many of us the town hall was an earthquake,” she said.

In her remarks, she also addressed Licht directly, saying, “We had a very robust exchange of views.”

“My management believes they did the right thing as service to the American people. I still respectfully disagree with allowing Donald Trump to appear in that particular format,” she added.

Amanpour also addressed the issue of showing both sides. “Be truthful, but not neutral, bothsidesism is not always objectivity. It does not get you to the truth,” she argued, adding:

Drawing false moral or factual equivalence is neither objective or truthful. Objectivity is our golden rule and it is in weighing all the sides and hearing all the evidence, but not rushing to equate them when there is no equating.

There is a 100% connection between a robust, independent, free and fair press and a functioning democracy and the advance of human rights and justice.

Amanpour offered a concrete example of when telling both sides of a story is not always warranted in her view, arguing that journalists roundly report Ukraine “is the victim of a Russian imperialist illegal aggression” and do not give equal weight to the Russian view of the war.