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Embattled CNN chief executive Chris Licht is out at the cable network, capping weeks of tumult within the company following a highly criticized town hall with Donald Trump and a scathing article that portrayed Licht as all but failing at his job of barely a year.
Staffers were notified on Wednesday morning by David Zaslav, chief executive of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
“I have great respect for Chris, personally and professionally,” Zaslav said later in a statement. “The job of leading CNN was never going to be easy, especially at a time of huge disruption and transformation, and he has poured his heart and soul into it.”
Licht replaced chief executive Jeff Zucker, who was forced to resign in early 2022 after failing to disclose to the company a romantic relationship with a fellow executive.
Now Licht is out at the network, less than a week after the Atlantic published a roughly 15,000-word profile, a story for which Licht gave extensive access to reporter Tim Alberta. The story presented Licht as failing to turn around CNN’s ratings problems and lacking the support of staff; it also quoted him criticizing CNN’s past coverage decisions and making questionable choices about the staging of the raucous Trump town hall, a live forum in which the former president spewed falsehoods and insulted moderator Kaitlan Collins, while an audience filled with Trump supporters cheered.
On Monday, after the article was published, Licht apologized to his staff and pledged to work to regain their trust.
In the interim basis, CNN will be led by a transition team of veteran executives Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley and Eric Sherling, along with David Leavy, who was recently brought on as chief operating officer.
Zaslav told staff on Wednesday that “we’re in the process of conducting a wide search, internally and externally, for a new leader.”
This is a developing story.
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/06/07/chris-licht-leaves-cnn-town-hall-atlantic/