CNN Revolt! Staffers Take Issue With New CEO’s Leadership and Direction

It all started with an Atlantic article released Friday, but the CEO of CNN might be on his last leg, as Mediaite reports.

As the profile notes, Chris Licht was brought into the job in the fall of 2022, aiming to give CNN a much needed makeover.

Their new approach would be a novel one. Gone would be the left-leaning CNN of yesteryear. Their new aim, ostensibly, is to be the objective source among the big three cable networks. Licht came from the late night talk show world, so he’d bring less of a political perspective than CEOs past.

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At least, that was supposed to be the new aim. But in the Atlantic profile, Licht’s bias was showing when he said, “I think they know that he’s playing them — at least, the people in my organization. We’ve had discussions about this. We know that we’re getting played, so we’re gonna resist it.”

But still, the Town Hall with Donald Trump incensed many CNN employees, whereas for conservatives, it was seen as mostly fair.

The author of the Atlantic article asked Licht if he would change anything about the Town Hall.

He said no. And that’s the problem. For the liberal movers and shakers at the network, he wasn’t apologetic enough, and quite frankly, he wasn’t liberal enough.

Licht was also accused of putting CNN on thin ice after canning Don Lemon. Lemon, according to the Atlantic article, said Al Sharpton, among other notable black media activists, would defend him.

And coming off as racist, even when there’s no tangible evidence pointing to that whatsoever, is the ultimate indictment against you amongst the left-leaning media players.

Brian Stelter, the former CNN anchor who was let go last August, said there was already a lot of anti-Licht sentiment, with this profile providing the final nail in the coffin.

“He’s over,” Stelter said succinctly, referring to Licht.

Now Licht has gone on the defense in an effort to safeguard his job.

Licht, according to Stelter, said in a staff conference call, “I know these past few days have been very hard for this group. I fully recognize that this news cycle and my role in it overshadowed the incredible week of reporting that we just had, and distracted from the work of every single journalist in this org. And for that, I am sorry.”

Translation? Licht admits fault, and implies that he’ll be changing his ways.

Expect CNN to go back to their once liberal approach.

It’s been working for MSNBC as they’ve been the only network not to see an audience loss in the last month.

But it might be too late to turn back. It takes time to build trust as an objective media source, and CNN was making those steps, however painful the growing pains might have been. Now, they’re likely to sink even further into the abyss as they become just another MSNBC knockoff.