On Wednesday afternoon, CNN’s revered chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour took the lectern to deliver the commencement address at Columbia Journalism School, in Morningside Heights. The setting, fittingly, was Roone Arledge Auditorium, named after the legendary news executive, who happened to be Bob Iger’s mentor. Just a few minutes in, however, Amanpour seemed to be addressing another news executive, CNN C.E.O. Chris Licht, as she took direct aim at her network’s decision to host a live town hall with former president Donald Trump. 

Amanpour said she had met with Licht this week to convey her belief that CNN should not have allowed Trump “to appear in that particular format,” and criticized his decision to broadcast Trump’s remarks live before an unruly audience. Licht acknowledged that “the execution was lacking a little,” Amanpour said, but he maintained that the network “did the right thing,” and that the town hall was “a service to the American people.” Amanpour respectfully disagreed: “We know Trump and his tendencies, everyone does,” she told the students. “He just seizes the stage and dominates, no matter how much flack the moderator tries to aim at the incoming. It doesn’t often work.”