Donald Trump’s recent appearance during prime time on CNN, during which he made insulting comments and spread false information, has drawn criticism not just from the Democratic Party but also from other quarters. As a result, the network has faced significant backlash.

Donald Trump’s airing of falsehoods and insults in a prime-time CNN appearance triggered a deluge of criticism of the network as media organizations grapple with how to cover the rule-breaking Republican seeking to win back the White House.

Thrust on the defensive, CNN pushed back Thursday, insisting the hour-long live “town hall” in New Hampshire was critical to its “role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.”

But critics said it had merely provided Trump with a powerful platform to spread repeatedly debunked claims, attack a sexual abuse victim and praise violent rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 — all in front of an applauding audience and on national television.

During the broadcast late Wednesday, watched by over three million people, Trump answered questions from registered Republicans and undeclared voters, with anchor Kaitlan Collins moderating and asking the 2024 candidate questions of her own.

The 76-year-old front-runner for the Republican nomination repeated his false claim that the 2020 election had been rigged for President Joe Biden, which Collins pointed out was a lie.

Criticism came from outside the ranks of the Democratic Party as well.

“It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,” the network’s own media reporter Oliver Darcy wrote on a blog on CNN’s website.

In a statement by US media, CNN said that Collins had “exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist.”

“She asked tough, fair, and revealing questions. And she followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican front-runner.”

Darcy noted, however, that “Trump frequently ignored or spoke over Collins throughout the evening as he unleashed a firehose of disinformation upon the country, which a sizable swath of the GOP continues to believe.”

The New York Times described the broadcast—Trump’s first appearance since 2016 on a network he regularly denounced as “fake news” — as “a bracing preview of political coverage to come.”

For many media organizations outside the circle of conservative outlets sympathetic to Trump, it revived a familiar problem: how to cover the Republican front-runner when so much of what he says is factually wrong and inflammatory.

Matt Jordan, a media studies associate professor at Penn State University, said CNN had performed “a terrible disservice to the public interest” by airing “entertainment” and “not news.”

“Responsible journalism verifies fact before publishing it,” he told AFP.

It’s a familiar debate: back in 2016, some commentators accused media organizations of contributing to Trump’s election victory with disproportionate coverage.

Miroslava Salazar with AFP.