CNN’s Oliver Darcy Calls Out Network For ‘Helping to Legitimize’ Ramaswamy’s ‘Dangerous Lies’ With Town Hall

CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy called out his network for “helping to legitimize” Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s “dangerous lies” with a town hall on Wednesday.

In CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter, Darcy – who is no stranger to criticizing his own network – accused CNN of “helping to legitimize the dishonest GOP presidential hopeful who has spewed dangerous lies and injected poison into the national discourse at every chance.”

He wrote, “The notion that the infotainer, who CNN has reported ‘struggles for relevance’ as he polls in the low single digits and remains exceedingly unlikely to be the Republican Party’s nominee, deserves an hour-long national platform to sell his personal brand and insidious talking points to the masses taxes the imagination.”

Darcy argued that while Ramaswamy would “not be allowed to spread his lies unchecked” with CNN host Abby Phillip as the town hall moderator, CNN had never given a town hall to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is higher in the polls that Ramaswamy.

“Why would any major news network help to validate such a preposterous figure by putting him on stage and allowing him to infect the public with his conspiracy campaign?” questioned Darcy, who argued that a pre-recorded interview would have served a better purpose.

“Handing Ramaswamy a microphone and putting him on a stage affixed with CNN’s iconic branding to answer audience questions helps validate him and provides oxygen to the menacing wildfire of delusions he has pushed into the public discourse,” he concluded.

In a statement defending the network’s decision, a CNN spokesperson told Darcy that Ramaswamy “is a significant candidate for the GOP nomination, having made every debate stage thus far,” and that voters in Iowa still had questions to ask him before deciding who to vote for in the Republican primary.

“We will always work to hold every candidate accountable and provide voters with the information necessary to make informed decisions going into an election,” the spokesperson said.

In October, Darcy warned CNN against partnering with two organizations he accused of peddling “extremist rhetoric,” while in May, he put the network on blast for hosting a controversial town hall with former President Donald Trump.

“It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,” he wrote at the time, adding that then-CNN boss Chris Licht was “facing a fury of criticism — both internally and externally over the event.”

While Darcy was reportedly scolded by Licht over his analysis of the event, the CNN senior media reporter took aim at Licht himself in Reliable Sources the following month, writing that the CNN boss had “alienated much of the employee base and squandered the good will he had when he took helm of the network.”

Licht was fired from his position that same month.