Licht took over the top job at CNN last year in a bid to push the network further into the center of politics.
(Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
New York After just one year at the helm of US television network CNN, CEO Chris Licht is leaving again. David Zaslav, who heads CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery Channel, made the announcement on Wednesday.
As a result, the world’s major news broadcaster remains mired in a leadership and ratings crisis. A team of four will temporarily manage the space station until a new boss is found.
The Rays have come under increasing criticism following a recent spate of mishaps and declining ratings. Just last year, he took over the top job from the resigned Jeff Zucker and was tasked with bringing CNN to the center of politics.
A critical article on Light in The Atlantic was decisive for the sudden departure. The current former CNN boss has been accompanied by reporters for months, and the resulting portrait is not very flattering. Lichter, for example, opposed reporting before taking office.
The characterizations went so far that the 51-year-old had to apologize to the station’s crew after his appearance and vowed to fight to win back their trust. But even before that, sentiment at CNN had hit rock bottom.
Strong Criticism of Trump Show
The rounds of firings, the firing of high-profile hosts and a town hall interview with Donald Trump — in an audience full of Trump fans — have sparked a great deal of discontent within the House.
In it, Trump made false claims about his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, announced that he would pardon many of those involved in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, and called CNN host Kaitlan Collins a ” Disgusting people”. More recently, journalistic legends such as Christiane Amanpour have also distanced themselves from the event.
David Zaslav personally picked now-fired CNN boss Lichter. Warner Media transitioned from AT&T to Discovery last year, with Zaslav in charge. Licht’s background is primarily in producing morning shows and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but has never run an organization as large as CNN before.
He was tasked with boosting ratings by opening up a wider political audience for the station, which has recently been firmly on the left, but he has not been successful. CNN under his leadership completely shut down the streaming service CNN+. Some ratings lag behind smaller news competitors such as MSNBC.
“I have a lot of respect for Chris, both personally and professionally,” Zaslav said. “The job of leading CNN has never been easy, especially in an era of disruption and change, and he has put his heart and soul into it.”
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