How do you solve a problem like CNN?
Top execs at AT&T, in the midst of acquiring Time Warner, are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to curry favor with the White House at the same time CNN’s journalists are putting the president under the Kleig lights.
Indeed, Time Warner-owned CNN’s terse relationship with the Trump administration worsened earlier this week with a high-profile dispute between adviser Kellyanne Conway over whether she being was banned from the cable news channel.
Then on Tuesday, “The Lead” anchor Jake Tapper conducted a tough interview with Conway over claims the media underreported terror attacks.
Tapper said it was hard to take criticism from a White House that has “little regard for facts or truth,” and “who calls us fake news for stories they don’t like.”
Meanwhile, AT&T appears to be making little traction in building relationships in DC, sources said. The Dallas telecom giant has been reaching out across the Beltway for feedback and advice on how to deal with the problem.
The Department of Justice will have to decide whether AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner passes an antitrust review.
Meanwhile, Breitbart News, co-founded by Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, ran on Tuesday an item about Trump’s reservations about the deal.
While AT&T boss Randall Stephenson has not tried to tone down CNN’s reporting, according to sources, the tension between the news channel and the White House concerns him.
Stephenson, looking to stoke good feeling with the administration, has had several phone calls with the president since he visited Trump Tower on Jan. 12, several sources said.
In one call, Stephenson, speaking about CNN, told Trump, “It’s better off in our hands,” one source familiar with the conversation told The Post.
An AT&T spokesman strongly shot down any suggestion that Stephenson ever brought up the deal with the White House.
“We have never discussed the merger with the president or anyone on his team. We have been very cautious not to do so,” the spokesman said.
Time Warner declined to comment.
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