I just want to ask you now,
because you talked about,
obviously, the Huffington Post
and, even though you're not
there any more,
I'm sure that you're a very
keen observer of what's
happening in the news in terms
of social media
and fake news.
So what are the challenges now
with fake news?
How do media organizations
overcome that?
Well, we have the challenge
that people now trust
their peers more than they
trust established media
institutions and that
more and more people,
over half the people,
get their news from social
media.
But also it's very important to
remember that fake news is not
a new phenomenon.
Let me take you back to
the year before the invasion
of Iraq.
The fake news
then was on the front page
of The New York Times,
in stories by Judith Miller,
about their weapons of mass
destruction programs in Iraq.
All of them entirely fake.
And then they were amplified
on the morning Sunday shows
and by administration
officials.
But at the time they were
reporting
on what they were being told by
the administration.
But that's fake news because
the reporting- becoming a
mouthpiece for the
administration is promoting
fake news. And look at what it
led to. It led to the
most tragic foreign policy
mistake of the Western world in
our lifetime,
because a lot of the
consequences that follow that
we reading about every day in
the papers now including ISIS,
were the result of that
incredible destabilization
of the region because of
the invasion of Iraq
based on entirely fake
news, we should never forget
that.
So we've talked about that
relationship with fake news and
the administration that that
you're saying,
Arianna, bu what about the
administration now in the U.S.
with President Trump?
Because there's the
fake news, or is there, the
dossier that's being talked
about, the relationship that
he's having now with media
outlets. It's unprecedented.
He's accusing networks
and it's never happened before.
What do you make of it?
Well two things.
First of all Donald Trump
should be separated from his
phone at night.
Get a full night's sleep and
stop tweeting in the middle of
the night.
Yeah, because he's tweeting at
3 a.m.
Exactly. He's the poster child
of sleep deprivation.
He's exhausted.
How do you think it's affecting
him?
It's definitely- you can see
it's affecting him!
In what way?
It's affecting him in the sense
that,
even after he won,
he was basically taking
the bait constantly.
You would have thought after
your win you can just relax,
you're on top of the world,
you're going to be President of
the United States in a few
days.
And it's really
the opposite of my
greatest hero,
Marcus Aurelius who was Emperor
of Rome and a stoic
philosopher.
And really these are like two
examples,
polar opposites,
of leadership.
One is kind of unflappable
in the presence of any dangers,
accusations and leading
from a very centered,
responsible place and
the other, unfortunately,
is being affected by every
negative tweet and
portrayal on Saturday Night
Live that he doesn't like
and every thing
kind of makes him upset.
And I promise you, if he got
eight hours sleep
and did not
to eat in the middle of the
night, the next
four years it would be
infinitely better for the
world. So I highly recommend
that his advisers take the
phone away.
It was interesting because I
did see some
tweets that he directed
at you personally,
back in 2012,
and they were very harsh.
They- they were real personal
attacks on you.
But that's his style.
You know, that doesn't mean
anything. You know, he always
attacks people.
I think- right now I think
he has an opportunity to tap
into the best Donald Trump
there is.
Because I think we all have the
better angels of our nature and
the worst part of ourselves,
and we all have an interest for
him to tap into that part
because he is now the
president.
And I think it's incredibly
important for people,
good people,
to accept to be in his
administration. I'm a believer
in that because the more he
is surrounded by people who can
influence him in the right
direction,
the better off the world will
be. He- and
I also think on behalf of the
media,
it's terribly important that
they do not succumb
to stories and publish stories
as BuzzFeed did publish the
dossier before they verify
them. Because
otherwise the media are going
to lose their credibility when
they are real stories they
want to address and
they want to criticize the
administration on.
If you'd been at the Huffington
Post and the dossier had come
out would you have published?
Absolutely not.
Because nobody has been able to
verify it.
That's why CNN did not publish
it. That's why the New York
Times did not publish it.
Otherwise we fall into
the trap that happened during
the Obama years when the
right-wing press would
publish anything against Obama.
You know, that's how the
birther controversy started.
'He was not born in the United
States' - completely,
completely fake news
that was published by
his opponents because
they wanted to believe the
worst about him.
Arianna, do you think,
going back to the theme of
responsible leadership,
President Trump will be a
responsible leader?
We do not know.
We have a lot of reason to
worry,
and I believe now
he needs to be judged by
everything he does and not by
what he said during the
campaign.
And just finally,
what's next for you,
besides a good night sleep
tonight.
Well a great day ahead in Davos
that I'm really looking forward
to.
And I'm really looking
forward to what's next for
Thrive Global.
We are expanding around the
world with just closed joint
ventures in Italy, in India
with the Times of India,
in South Africa,
in Eastern Europe,
in Russia,
in Turkey.
The stress of-
the stress and burnout
pandemic is everywhere.
It's truly global and it's
having a huge impact on
both individual lives,
corporations and countries.
I mean, 75 percent
of our healthcare costs are
because of stress related,
preventable diseases.
So we need to address this head
on, it's a real public health
crisis.
And I'm definitely committed to
devoting the rest of my life to
it.
Still watching?
Perfect.
Click here to watch another
great video from CNBC
international.
Oh, and don't forget to
subscribe.
Thanks for watching.