CNN CEO Chris Licht continues to get his teeth kicked in by the number of employees who are talking to the rest of the media landscape in disbelief after The Atlantic published a highly in-depth profile of Licht.
The profile gave details of constant problems Licht faced trying to rebrand the media organization that has become synonymous with fake news. From drama with former host Don Lemon to moving his office to a different floor away from most staff, many CNN employees have little good to say about Licht.
Brain Stelter, who was fired by Licht, joined in on the action by publishing what he has heard from within the outlet in a piece for New York Magazine. Those he says he spoke to said they doubt Licht can continue to serve as CEO barely a year into his tenure:
That anti-Licht sentiment is shared by many in the CNN rank and file, and has existed to some extent for months, but The Atlantic article cemented it. In the words of three employees: “He’s over.” “He’s done.” “There’s no coming back from that profile.” However, the staffers don’t know whether Zaslav agrees.
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Many CNN staffers feel the news operation isn’t broken and thus doesn’t need Zaslav or Licht to fix it. Zaslav, who seems not to agree, has channeled his views through Licht, sometimes loudly enough that others could overhear him doing so over the phone. But now Zaslav is telling associates that Leavy is bringing adult supervision — a seeming indictment of Licht. In the words of one host, “Something has got to give.”
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Staffers I spoke with were startled by the lapse in judgment that Licht’s participation in The Atlantic profile represented. And they were particularly offended by Licht’s assertion that CNN unduly hyped COVID for ratings. (I was on CNN’s air almost every day back then, and I completely reject that.) In private conversations over the weekend, Licht has sought to clarify that his criticisms of CNN’s coverage were about the later stage of the pandemic, not the pre-vaccine period, and were informed by internal research that showed some viewers lost trust in the network due to COVID.
CNN employees thinking the non-journalistic culture at CNN is not the problem but Licht is the issue is highly revealing. They really do not believe any of the mountain of criticism they have received over the past few years is valid (spoiler alert: the criticism is more than warranted). Instead, they are mad this outsider, who has seen the decline of CNN, is trying to regain the trust of the country.
The fact they have not done any self-reflection and chalk up any criticism to MAGA Republican nonsense is exactly why their ratings are low and their trust outside of the media bubble is almost non-existent. Is Licht the guy to fix it? At this point, probably not, but given the company's response to a guy saying, 'Hey, maybe we should get back to journalism,' being the equivalent to a toddler's temper tantrum is another example that CNN may never get the nation's trust back, and they do not deserve it.
