Chris Licht Addresses Bombshell Profile: “CNN Is Not About Me”
CNN Worldwide chairman and CEO Chris Licht addressed the bombshell profile in The Atlantic in comments to network staffers on Monday, telling them, “I should not be in the news unless it’s taking arrows for you.”
Licht indicated that he had been doing “a lot of thinking” over the weekend about the profile, and said that his role had become a distraction. “CNN is not about me,” he said in his comments, per Axios and confirmed by other sources.
Over months, Licht granted extraordinary access to The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta in a piece that ultimately was headlined, “Inside the Meltdown at CNN.” It’s underscored the tumult at the network, including the decision to go forward with a town hall with former President Donald Trump that featured a cheering audience of supporters who laughed when he made light of a sexual abuse verdict against him.
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Licht’s tenure is now under the microscope. On Thursday, CNN announced that it was naming David Leavy, a top adviser to Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, as its COO. That has led to speculation that Leavy was brought in to try to right the ship amid staff discord and declining ratings.
Among other things, in comments in the profile, Licht criticized CNN’s breakneck coverage of Covid, and it showed that he was fixated on his predecessor, Jeff Zucker. In one passage, in which Alberta observed Licht at his morning workout, “squatted down to grab a long metal pole lying flat on the ground. ‘Zucker couldn’t do this shit,’” Licht said, per Alberta’s piece. The profile also portrayed Licht as a bit obsessed with his own media coverage.
Licht’s staff call was covered on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the show that he created along with co-host Joe Scarborough. He read former CNN host Brian Stelter’s Twitter thread of the town hall, in which Licht also told staffers that he would “fight like hell’ to win their trust back.
“The suggestion that somehow CNN was like Shangri La and this powerhouse until Chris Licht walked through the doors kind of denies everything that happened over the past decade …as far as money goes,” Scarborough said. “…I’m not knocking Jeff, but this idea that it was a ratings juggernaut when it just wasn’t before Chris walked through the door. That’s not Jeff’s fault. That’s just bad reporting.” CNN’s ratings had dropped off in Zucker’s final years, he noted.
More to come.
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