CNN will not give $5 million to charity to ensure Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump appears on the Republican debate set to air on the Time Warner-owned cable-news outlet on December 15, the network's top executive said Thursday.
"No," said CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker, responding to a question about a demand from Trump that CNN donate $5 million to charity or face the chance the candidate might boycott the event. "We do not pay candidates to appear" on the network. Zucker made his comments at an event held by the Paley Center for Media, as part of a wide-ranging inteview with Ben Smith, editor in chief of digital outlet BuzzFeed.
CNN had previously declined to respond to the candidate's demand that CNN give $5 million to charities associated with U.S. military veterans.
Zucker also said he has begun to crack down on over-use of on-air graphics trumpeting "Breaking News" on the network, part of a belief that CNN needs to confirm details about news stories rather than just repeat details viewers are gleaning from social media. "I want to make sure we know what we are doing, and not just calling 'breaking news," on air, Zucker said.
As an example, the news chief disclosed that CNN had learned the identity of one of the suspected shooters in yesterday's mass shootings in San Bernardino, California, by early primetime Wednesday night but actually waited until 11:45 p.m. to put it on air. The network had "five sources," Zucker confided to the audience, but "we wanted to flesh it out to make sure we had everything about it." Viewers hear many details from Twitter or Facebook or friends, he said, "but they came to us because they know when we reported it, it would be right."
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