Tim Alberta, the author of the The Atlantic profile entitled “Inside Meltdown at CNN”, paints an ominous picture of the media giant’s decline.
Axios highlights five excerpts of the article.
From Axios:
Town Hall debacle Backstage, Licht told the former president Trump to “Have Fun.” Alberta twisted the knife and said: “Trump obliged.” Licht was aware that the audience would be “extra Trumpy,” a phrase which lit up the internal Slack channel. The result: “The only person who didn’t seem angry was Trump. Most likely because he had disgraced the network on their own airwaves.”
Lost room: People at CNN believe he is “projecting this personality of a bulletproof, badass to show what Zaslav wants him to be.” Licht’s circle is getting smaller. He was more guarded around CNN employees. Our many hours of conversation began to feel as if they were therapy sessions, a safe space where he could vent his grievances.
Bad judgement on big moves : “Licht’s theory about CNN — what went wrong, how to fix, and why this could lift the industry as a whole — made sense. What was the execution of this theory? Another story. He made every move, whether it was a big decision in programming or a small tactical maneuver, and they all seemed to backfire. I asked Licht to describe that mission… “Journalism. Trust. Everyone has a plan, attempting to influence events or thoughts. There must be an absolute source of truth. ‘”
Obsessed by press At a holiday meal for his D.C. talent at Cafe Milano in Washington, Licht spent most of the evening looking at his smartphone, reading “a critical article about him” in Puck.
Obsessed by his predecessor Jeff Zucker, Licht told Alberta he skipped a meal because he is a “fucking machine.” While working out in his Manhattan gym, Licht squatted to grab a metal pole that was lying flat on ground. Licht grunted and clenched his teeth as he lifted the pole.
Licht’s attempts to clean house and restart the failed network were largely unsuccessful. This included firing high profile, far-left voice like Brian Stelter and Don Lemon.
The full profile can be found at The Atlantic.
Over the last year, I spent time shadowing Chris Licht. He was the new boss of CNN and had ambitions to rehabilitate the journalism industry.
This is an account — based on interviews with nearly 100 of his own reporters — of what went wrong.https://t.co/Um1YNzXaLF
Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta June 2, 2020
