The head of CNN, Chris Licht, is already out of his job after a little more than a year. He had resigned with immediate effect, they were looking for a successor, said CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.
"I have a lot of respect for Chris, personally and professionally," said David Zaslav, the president and chief executive officer of Warner Bros. Discovery. "The task of leading CNN has never been easy, especially at a time of great upheaval and change, and he has put all his heart and soul into it."
Licht had joined CNN as a beacon of hope. As a producer of "CBS This Morning" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" he had earned merits. CNN hoped that light would give the journalistic profile of the ailing channel back to the polish. His predecessor, Jeff Zucker, had lost his post because of a consensual relationship with a longtime colleague whom he had not disclosed.
A few departures and a fiasco
As a slogan, Licht argued that CNN should be a network that "fearlessly holds those in power accountable, challenges the status quo, questions groupthink, and informs viewers and readers with hard facts and insightful commentary, always showing respect for dissenting perspectives." At the time of Donald Trump's presidency, CNN had established itself as a trend medium – in clear opposition to Trump. As a result, the broadcaster's reporting, which was once considered unbiased, suffered. Less "breaking news", less partisanship, more background, more balance and thus back to the center of society, that was now Licht's program.
With him at the helm, however, the station did not get into calmer waters, on the contrary. The new boss did not succeed in turning things around. Prominent journalists quit the service. Licht had to scrap the CNN+ streaming service just a few weeks after its launch. Because of the cost reduction that the parent company Warner Bros. Discovery expected, hundreds of CNN employees were laid off.
At the beginning of May, the much-heralded town hall show with Donald Trump became a fiasco. Trump lied that the beams were bending, as we know from him, and no one was able to oppose him, especially not the moderator Kaitlan Collins. For this, Chris Licht had to take fierce criticism as station boss.
He wanted to "fight like the devil"
Then a video was leaked to the public in which he criticized his station's reporting on the Corona pandemic and seemed distant from the employees. For this, he apologized. He will fight "like the devil" to regain their trust, he assured CNN staff.
And then – followed the dismissal of the well-known presenter Don Lemon from the channel's morning show. Lemon is considered an icon of the left, but also misogynistic, power-obsessed and uncollegial. None of this was good for CNN's ratings. With Licht's dismissal, the company is now pulling the emergency brake.