TV station backs off accusation that CNN played politics

NEW YORK — An executive at a San Diego television station that accused CNN of rejecting an appearance by one of its reporters for political reasons conceded Friday he didn’t really know why the network turned him down.

After CNN reached out to KUSITV to see if reporter Dan Plante would come on the air Thursday to talk about how a border barrier was working in the San Diego area, the segment never happened.

CNN said plans change all the time, and that the network chose to have its own reporters talk about border security. But KUSI saw other motivations.

Steve Cohen, KUSI’s news director, said he told CNN that it might not want Plante because his reporting has concluded that a border wall there has worked well, and that such a conclusion might not fit the cable network’s “narrative” against the wall. He said he never got a call back.