Tipsheet

CNN Isn't Just Getting Rid of Its CEO. Here Are the Other Heads That Rolled at the Network.

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  June 07, 2023 12:15 PM

It was a brief tenure for Chris Licht at CNN. The now-former CEO was told to pack up his office—he’s out. As Julio noted this morning, Licht’s departure marks the end of one of the most tumultuous periods in the network’s history. Frankly, I thought he was slightly more tolerable than ex-chief Jeff Zucker, who resigned in February 2022 over an undisclosed relationship with the network’s chief marketing and communications executive. Licht appeared to at least want to make CNN less hyperbolic, firing a host of blowhards like John Harwood and Brian Stelter and demoting Don Lemon, who was later sacked, not having been able to adapt to his new morning slot with co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlin Collins. 

He also summoned media reporter Oliver Darcy to his office to excoriate him for his emotionally soaked write-up of the network’s town hall event with former President Donald Trump. At this meeting, Darcy was reportedly left shaking. That event might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, as staffers voiced their outrage and opposition to the highly rated segment. Longtime host and reporter Christiane Amanpour called out her employer in her commencement address at the Columbia Journalism School in May. 

Whatever the case, Licht is gone, but so are two other CNN executives: Matt Dornic and Kris Coratti. 

So, does this mean CNN will rehire all the people Licht fired?