CNN host Anderson Cooper revealed in a recent interview how talent view themselves while criticizing former CEO Chris Licht, who attempted to steer the low-ratings network away from the extremely partisan coverage they have become known for before being met with a near open revolt from employees.
In an interview with the New York Times' David Marchese, Cooper said one reason why Licht did not involve him much in the change Licht was trying to make at CNN is because he is not an opinion host:
I don’t want to be unfair. I understood what the idea and the vision was. Obviously I am a part of CNN, so I want CNN to do well and be respected, but I try to worry about stuff I actually have my hands on. For me, it’s the show that I work on. That is my priority, and I do whatever I can to make that as good as I can. My sense from Chris was there was not a lot we needed to hash out because I’m not an opinion host. I’m talking to people from different sides and trying to be straight down the middle and represent things fairly and accurately. I keep my head down. I just try to do the best I can. I don’t need to have a lot of meetings with anybody who comes in. With Chris, I had a meeting with him when he first started and touched base from time to time, but we didn’t have a ton of communications.
When it came to what he thought about Licht's ill-fated plans for CNN, Anderson had this to say: "I don’t know what Chris Licht’s analysis was. I don’t have much confidence that I actually know what he was thinking...I mean, I read things in the paper, but I’m not sure what the point of it all was."
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What Cooper says is very revealing because the hosts, who have clearly gone away from being down-the-middle anchors, honestly believe they are not opinion hosts despite the fact being opinion hosts helped them gain popularity during the Trump administration. The way CNN talent conduct themselves while Donald Trump was president solidified them with a far-left audience but alienated those who viewed CNN as mostly non-partisan during the early 2000s.
It further explains why Licht was met with so much resistance internally because the employees genuinely believe they are not the reason why trust in the mainstream media is so low, even though they are. It is a real life example of the Principal Skinner meme, where the Simpsons character asks himself if he is out of touch only then to robotically declare it is the "children" who are wrong. CNN staffers can't bring themselves to admit, at least publicly, they are part of the problem.
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