There are big changes underway at CNN, and long-time employees in front of the cameras and behind aren’t sure what to make of them.
The changes are the brainchild of Chris Licht, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CNN Worldwide. When Licht took over the floundering network at the end of February, CNN was mired in last place in the cable news ratings race. Once he got his bearings, he began to put his imprint on the network by trying to get rid of media personalities who may have been popular with the far left but who definitely left the rest of America cold.
Brian Stelter was fired when the network failed to renew the show he hosted, Reliable Sources — which was must-see TV when Howard Kurtz hosted it. But Stelter’s strident anti-Trumpsim and his sneering condescension of the right made his show unwatchable.
And now CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood has also apparently been forced out. Harwood wasn’t as obnoxiously left-wing as Stelter but still allowed partisanship to color his reporting.
What to make of this? Is Licht trying to turn CNN to the right?
Washington Post:
Several current and former CNN employees who spoke with The Washington Post — most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly — are interpreting the sudden exodus as evidence that Licht, who joined the network as chairman and CEO in May, is starting his tenure by casting out voices that had often been critical of former president Donald Trump and his allies, in an effort to present a new, more ideologically neutral CNN. That aligns with a vision repeatedly expressed by David Zaslav, the chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The problem, of course, is trying to figure out what Licht’s idea of “ideologically neutral” might be. I doubt it’s what you or I might see as “neutral.” And perhaps Licht himself doesn’t know either.
Licht has provided little guidance publicly about a new mission for CNN, leaving some employees feeling unmoored. “Longtime CNN personalities are disappearing, and the viewers don’t know why,” another CNN insider said, noting that Licht has not hired many new voices to replace them.
For Licht, it may be a situation where he’ll know what he wants when he gets it. He told the staff he wants to see more GOP politicians being interviewed on air and has told staff to resist “group-think.”
In a memo to staff in May, Licht said he wants CNN to help regain the trust that many people have lost in media, by “fearlessly speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo, questioning ‘group-think,’ and educating viewers and readers with straightforward facts and insightful commentary, while always being respectful of differing viewpoints.”
To my left-wing friends, I would advise you not to panic. CNN is part of the East Coast media establishment that believes that one falls off the end of the earth if you travel west of the Mississippi. And south of the Mason-Dixon Line, there be dragons. CNN will put new faces in front of the camera. They may not be what frothing, radical left-wing hysterics want to see, but more ordinary people will probably tune in because the coverage will be far less obviously anti-Republican than it has been.
And Mr. Licht will finally figure out what kind of “ideologically neutral” coverage he wants.
Source: PJ Media
