The full program at https://url.joyn.de/BreakingMedia - Joyn, Austria's superstreamer. CNN CEO Mark Thompson warns in the ...
What Mark Thompson said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Mark Thompson, CEO of CNN, discussed CNN's role in American politics and its digital transformation. He highlighted CNN's securing of the 2024 Trump-Biden debate, which led to Biden's exit and Harris's candidacy. Thompson addressed threats to press freedom under Trump, citing the removal of journalists from the Pentagon and reduced briefings, but noted limited legal actions so far. He defended CNN's trust ratings among its users, despite low trust among Republicans, and emphasized impartial, on-the-ground journalism as key. He discussed CNN's digital subscription model, rolling out in the US and expanding internationally later this year. Thompson stressed the value of human witnesses over machine-generated content, arguing that while AI can write headlines, it cannot replicate human encounters.
Key takeaways
CNN secured the 2024 Trump-Biden debate, which was decisive in Biden's exit from the race.
CNN's digital subscription model is rolling out in two countries by end of 2026, with global availability planned.
Press freedom under Trump faces risks from hostile language and actions, but legal actions have been limited so far.
CNN's domestic monthly website audience is around 100 million, nearly a third of the US population.
Machines can write headlines and summaries, but cannot replicate human journalistic encounters.
0:03Your panel discussion today was titled "America in Transition." What have been the biggest changes within these last three years that you've been with CNN?
2:28Now, I'd like to take a view on the whole media landscape in the US and especially want to know, do you believe that press freedom is under threat now under President Donald Trump?
5:29Do you think that a news outlet should take a political stance?
6:45But do you think it's necessary to gain this trust, to win this trust back, even though people have a different political position?
8:33Now, you've already partly answered my next question because I'd like to know what is the role of traditional media now in these days where there are so many opportunities to gain information like influencers, podcasters, and so on?
You were the director general of the BBC, then CEO of the New York Times, and now you've been at CNN for almost three years. Your panel discussion today was titled "America in Transition." What have been the biggest changes within these last three years that you've been with CNN?
Well, there's two halves of the story. Firstly, I've been a witness and indeed involved in the political story. Domestic politics are very important to CNN, as you can imagine. For example, we secured—and I was very involved in securing it—a debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the summer of 2024, two years ago, which was very decisive. Joe Biden's performance in that debate led to his leaving the field and Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic candidate. Of course, Donald Trump won that election. So, firstly, I've been very involved in the coverage of the momentous change that took place in American politics because of the re-arrival of Donald Trump. So, that's part of the story.
At the same time, we're involved, as many media organizations are, in fundamental change of CNN to prepare it for the future. In my time there, we've launched a digital subscription model. We found a way of putting all of our television services online as part of this subscription model. We've rolled that out in America. We'll be rolling it out in other countries starting later this year. We'll do two countries at the end of this year, but hopefully that service will be available everywhere in the world, including in Austria. So, we're having a pretty major and fundamental change inside the organization, even as we're trying to bring the story of a very dynamic world—both American politics, but also world events, including both the war in Ukraine and the war now in the Middle East and Iran—to audiences around the world.
Now, you've mentioned how CNN has changed or what CNN has experienced within these last three years. Now, I'd like to take a view on the whole media landscape in the US and especially want to know, do you believe that press freedom is under threat now under President Donald Trump?
Well, clearly Mr. Trump is someone who often talks aggressively about the press, about the media, and indeed about CNN in particular. CNN is a particular bête noire of his. We've also seen some hostile actions by the Trump administration: the kicking of journalists out of the Pentagon and the more or less cancellation of Pentagon press briefings. So at a time when America is at war, we're getting very infrequent press briefings about what's happening in the war. That means we have to do more investigative journalism. We have to figure out more journalism about it. So far, although there have been a number of threats and the announcement of various leak inquiries—most recently about the New York Times—the actual legal and constitutional actions against the press have been quite limited. But I think it's fair to say that we have to be concerned at the language the administration is using about the press, and there are risks there, I think. Yeah.
Now, you've already mentioned that CNN has been attacked verbally by Donald Trump several times. According to YouGov's latest trust in media study, CNN is the news outlet Republicans trust the least. What do you attribute that to?
Well, we reach a large number of Americans every month—many tens of millions actually overall, because our website's domestic monthly audience is around the 100 million mark. So, 100 million Americans, that's almost a third of the population, come to us every month.
I'm most focused on whether the people who freely decide to use us for news trust us or not. In fact, we've got one of the highest ratings for trust in the news industry from the people who use CNN. And there may be some people who never use CNN, but who are often told by the political leaders they admire that CNN is untrustworthy. Maybe those people don't trust CNN, but they're not customers. I'm most interested in making sure that we've got a very big customer base, and our customers continue to like the product.
Thompson, M. (2026, September 8). Mark Thompson in the Breaking Media Sommergespräch: The CNN chief on Trump's threats against the press [Interview transcript]. PULS 24. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1334780/
MLA
Mark Thompson. "Mark Thompson in the Breaking Media Sommergespräch: The CNN chief on Trump's threats against the press." PULS 24, 8 Sep. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1334780/.
BibTeX
@misc{thompson2026_1334780,
author = {Mark Thompson},
title = {Mark Thompson in the Breaking Media Sommergespräch: The CNN chief on Trump's threats against the press},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, PULS 24. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {sep},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1334780/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
