CNN’s new CEO Chris Licht is taking the company in a new direction and the first goal is to assess “whether personalities and programming that grew polarizing during the Trump era can adapt to the network’s new priority to be less partisan,” Axios reported.
Driving the news: If the talent doesn’t readjust and become less partisan, the network may offload them. This means holding more “respectful interviews” and having more “nuance” rather than “noise,” the report said.
- Axios also noted that this doesn’t mean CNN is shying away from the prime-time programming led by personality, but that the network doesn’t want their voices to dominate as the network’s voice.
State of play: This isn’t the only change the company is going through. The “Breaking News” banner is now only reserved for actual breaking news, while partisan on-screen captions, like “Angry Trump Turns Briefing Into Propaganda Session,” are discouraged, according to a New York Times report.
- “I’m not here to get into the weeds of day-to-day editorial decision-making,” Licht, 50, told employees on his first day, but he said that CNN will “challenge the traditional philosophy of cable news.”
- The Times added that Licht had moved from handling an estimated 200 employees at the “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to leading a massive network with over 4,000 employees.
Flashback: Former CNN head Jeff Zucker resigned in February, citing his relationship with colleague Allison Gollust as the reason, as I reported for the Deseret News.
- The network also fired Chris Cuomo, a prime-time host, in December amid sexual misconduct allegations. CNN also had concerns over Cuomo’s ties to his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who faced sexual harassment and assault allegations.