CNN Drops Reza Aslan Over His Vulgar Criticism of Trump - By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUMJUNE 9, 2017 Mr. Aslan, whose program covered global religion and began this year, apologized after his tweets on Saturday, in which he described the president as “an embarrassment to humankind” and compared him, using profanity, to a piece of excrement. CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, has also faced a backlash at another of its units, HBO, because the host Bill Maher used a racial slur during last week’s episode of his show “Real Time.” Mr. Maher apologized the next day. “We wish Reza and his production team all the best.” “In these politically charged times, the tenor of our nation’s discourse has become complicated, and I recognize that CNN needs to protect its brand as an unbiased news outlet,” Mr. Aslan wrote. Last week, the network said that the comedian Kathy Griffin would no longer be a host of its New Year’s Eve program, after Ms. Griffin was rebuked for posting a photograph in which she brandished a fake severed head that resembled the president’s head.
