The autopsy on Chris Licht’s short-lived and ill-fated tenure on the high of CNN can have a well-known tone to anybody who has seen as many company beheadings as I’ve.
Licht couldn’t win over his troops — not simply the anchors, however the individuals who make the trains run on time on the community.
He made quite a few unforced errors — dangerous programming choices, and an excessive amount of moaning within the press about all of the dangerous press over his incapability to show across the low-rated community.
There was that disastrous city corridor with Donald Trump, after which that idiotic determination to reveal his soul to the Atlantic, exposing himself to a reporter (each within the workplace and on the health club, no much less) in methods no chief government ought to permit himself to be seen.
His boss, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav, is alleged to have been significantly incensed over the health club incident: Licht bragging about his weight reduction, displaying off his exercise routine and food regimen whereas boasting, “I’m a f–king machine.”
It was proof, in Zas’ pondering, that Licht’s focus wasn’t on job No. 1 — remaking CNN from the off-the-cliff progressivism of his predecessor, Jeff Zucker, and bettering scores by interesting to Center America.
So sure, all of that contributed to Licht’s exit.
But whenever you get previous all of Licht’s stumbles, all of the self-inflicted wounds, he additionally had an almost unimaginable job — as does his eventual full-time alternative.
Remaking CNN into one thing totally different than an unwatchable carbon copy of the socialist banter of MSNBC would require a Herculean effort and numerous shakeups and firings.
And he might thank Jeff Zucker for that.
When CNN was taken over by Zas & Co. following the AT&T spinoff of Warner Media, Zucker had reworked the community into one thing Ted Turner would by no means have acknowledged.
It grew to become a conflict room of CNN expertise towards Republicans normally and Trump particularly.
And the rank and file reveled within the fight greater than they liked the job of merely reporting the information.
There was little in the way in which of the balanced nuance of COVID, the lockdowns, the efficacy of vaccines, or sleepy Joe Biden’s presidential marketing campaign performed from his basement.
Zucker thought that interesting to the left and bashing Trump at each flip was good TV. He had a whole information division believing the identical.
He boasted some excessive scores, to make sure, however a more in-depth take a look at the numbers reveals everybody’s scores have been larger again then. Trump was nice on TV.
Then COVID saved individuals inside and glued to their TV units.
Twine-cutting hadn’t fairly began to take its pound of flesh.
But Zucker’s CNN was nonetheless a third-place community in total viewers. It holds then, as now, simply round a 20% market share, behind far larger numbers of first-place Fox (my employer) and second-place MSNBC.
Doesn’t take a TV genius to comprehend Zas — in control of making the $43 billion Discovery-Warner Media deal work — had no alternative however to do one thing, something to alter CNN so it might attraction to a broader viewers.
Zucker was booted from CNN in early 2022 for having an affair with a subordinate in violation of firm guidelines.
Nevertheless it’s exhausting to think about he would have lasted anyway below Zaslav’s new course.
Zucker, now ensconced in a personal fairness agency, has little question fed the anti-Licht narrative inside CNN HQ.
Now CNN’s liberal workers all have what they needed — the change agent is gone and it’s again to doing enterprise the old style Zucker approach. Proper?
Don’t wager on it.
Sandwiched between Fox and MSNBC, there’s nowhere for CNN to go however the center.
And Zas isn’t a affected person man.
Wall Streeters who know him say in some unspecified time in the future, he’s simply going to surrender and unload the place, most likely to the bean counters in non-public fairness who couldn’t care much less about something however the backside line.
Zucker’s minions will then be ruing the day they defenestrated Chris Licht.
