CNN’s John Berman Dishes on His New Show, The Trump Town Hall, And The Future of Cable News
CNN’s John Berman — a veteran journalist and anchor who has reported from war zones — was recently named one of the hosts of the network’s adventurous new daytime program, CNN News Central, alongside Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan.
Berman joined The Interview this week with Mediaite editor Aidan McLaughlin to discuss the new show, his career, reporting from war zones in Iraq and Ukraine, the changes at CNN, the network’s divisive town hall with former president Donald Trump, how to cover the former president, the Fox News Dominion settlement, staying out of trouble on Twitter, and much more.
Read highlights from the episode below.
On his new three-hour show, CNN News Central
I think the show’s been going really well. I think the audience has responded well. I think it’s been a blast to do. The idea of the show is, first of all, to have it be incredibly present and in the moment, to have it incredibly visual with the video walls all around us. Really it is a true 360 degree studio where we at different times are on every wall of the studio, which is super fun and there’s just a ton of movement and it’s very active.
…
I will tell you, for me, it feels like field anchoring, which I do a ton of and I love. And you’re standing up for that. You’re not sitting at a desk when you’re in the field. You’re standing outside in the middle of the story. And so in this show, I’m standing inside, in the middle of the story, with the story all around me, on the walls and everything else. The first two months of when Russia invaded Ukraine, I didn’t sit down for two months. I stood in front of a magic wall, drawing on a map, had a big video wall behind me. I think it’s a really active, engaging way to do the news. And depending on what the story is, I think it adds a sense of urgency.
On the future of CNN
It’s impossible to imagine a place I’d rather be in this news environment. Everything is so everything is changing so much. Everything is in such flux and there’s such upheaval. But the one thing that doesn’t change is there is news and there will always be news. And when there is news, CNN is — that’s who you what you want telling you the news. That’s who you want there, in the war zone, in the hurricane zone, in the disaster zone. When I started in the business in 1995, applying for desk assistant jobs, I remember people telling me that the industry was dying. I’m not joking. I remember people saying, you don’t want to get into this. That was 1995. People have been declaring the end of the news business for decades now. There will always be news. People will always need to report on it and always need to tell the stories. Given that, I think CNN is the best positioned to ride out this period of tumult that absolutely is in the industry right now.
On the Trump town hall
My opinion beforehand was that, look, news organizations should always want to speak to newsmakers and ask them hard questions. That’s what we do. So that in and of itself to me wasn’t controversial. And then I watched it. I’m in a little bit of a different position than everyone else. I have the luxury of needing to figure out what I then have to do with this later on. How is this going to affect my news life the next day? And so I was very much watching it along the lines of, where is the news here? And there was a bunch of news there. In fact, today, a full week later from the town hall, on our show on CNN News Central, we were still covering things that were connected to this town hall and only would have happened because of the town hall. Trump basically indicating he was okay with a debt default, I think absolutely has reshaped the way people, Republicans and Democrats have talked about the debt ceiling negotiations… Ron DeSantis, we’re watching, a full week in, and Semafor had terrific reporting today on the DeSantis world having second thoughts about how to DeSantis world reacted to Trump in the CNN town hall. In some ways it’s set the agenda for a bunch of different things. Ukraine, I mean talk about Ukraine right now. I absolutely think Zelensky knows exactly what was said at that town hall, knew exactly the promises that Trump was not willing to make about what would happen if he was elected president. And I think it absolutely is affecting Zelensky’s decisions on the war in his country and also as he travels around Europe. So I think I think there was absolutely news made and it has had an impact.
On the importance of networks sending reporters to cover foreign conflict
It’s invaluable. It’s irreplaceable. To be there, to see the suffering, to see the damage that’s done and to tell the stories. And yes, it’s expensive. In some ways, it’s easier than it ever used to be also. I mean, you can broadcast from a cell phone. Back when I was in — actually Iraq was revolutionary. There we were using technology where we were broadcasting from laptops and these devices, but they were big suitcases. Ten years before that, you needed a giant satellite dish. Now you need a cell phone.
On getting nervous heading to war zones
I always get nervous. I think there are two kinds of people who go to war zones and both, I think, can be good conflict reporters. One type are the people who get the surge of adrenaline and want to run toward the explosions. They’re go, go, go thrill-seekers and they can be terrific conflict reporters. And then there are the people who get scared by explosions and things on fire and getting shot at. That’s me. I’m perfectly willing to be scared by it. But that’s okay too, because I think that’s a very human response. I also say, that when I go to a war zone, the hard decision is the decision to go. But once you’ve decided to go, you’re there and your job is to cover the story as much as you can, safely, you know, safely cover for you and your team. But once you decide to go, you’re in, and you’ve got to cover it and show people as much as you possibly can.
Download the full episode here, and subscribe to The Interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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