Former CNN boss Chris Licht took a swipe on the “hyperbole” from the legacy media main as much as final week’s historic victory of President-elect Donald Trump.
Talking on the Yahoo Finance Make investments convention Tuesday, Licht was requested how the media can regain belief because the nation embraces a second Trump administration.
His recommendation to his media colleagues: “Swing on the pitches which might be thrown.”
“To utterly butcher a Chris Rock phrase, if somebody kills eight individuals, do not say they killed 9,” Licht stated. “[Trump’s] going to do sufficient issues that actually require scrutiny and sounding the alarm bells. Do not say, ‘Effectively, this implies this, and that implies that’s going to occur.’ Say he did this, after which let’s talk about what which means. Not, ‘Effectively that is going to imply this’ as a result of lots of instances the media will get in bother after they predict issues.”
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Ex-CNN chairman Chris Licht slammed the “hyperbole” coming from the legacy media a couple of second Trump presidency. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Pictures)
Licht, who was ousted as CNN’s chairman and CEO in June 2023 after barely over a yr on the job, pointed to the “hyperbole” he had seen as a media observer concerning what a second Trump presidency would convey.
“‘It is the top of democracy.’ Effectively, if it is not, if 4 years from now it is not, then now we have an issue with credibility,” Licht stated. “So as a substitute, ‘He is appointed this particular person, that is this particular person’s monitor file,’ not ‘which means he is going to do that,’ proper?”
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“There will likely be sufficient to debate. There will likely be sufficient issues which might be going to be controversial. However he and his individuals know precisely what they’re doing after they attempt to gin up what certainly one of my former colleagues known as outrage porn. If all the things is an 11, and all the things is outrageous, then you definitely’re in a position to form of slip by means of some issues that really ought to create that outrage,” he added.
Licht stated the media can have a “credibility” drawback if democracy remains to be round after President-elect Trump’s second time period. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Pictures)
Licht was handpicked by Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav in 2022 to assist revive CNN’s viewership and restore its journalistic credibility after the community spent years constructing a fame for being an anti-Trump information group below predecessor Jeff Zucker.
CNN’s rank-and-file resisted Licht’s efforts to take away the spectacle from its protection. Amongst his main strikes have been dismissing distinguished liberal on-air figures, together with Brian Stelter, Don Lemon and Jeffrey Toobin.
Nonetheless, Licht had utterly misplaced the belief of CNN workers after the community hosted the now-infamous Trump city corridor in Could 2023, which sparked unprecedented fury from inside the newsroom. Licht was fired by Zaslav weeks later.
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Quick-forward to November 2024 as monetary woes and dismal viewership proceed to plague the community. A lot of Licht’s selections have been reversed – Stelter was rehired as a media analyst, and Toobin and Lemon have made a number of appearances as company – and CNN’s anti-Trump protection got here again in a roaring vogue by means of Election Day.
CNN has been plagued with dwindling viewership in recent times. ( Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures)
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CNN’s present honcho Mark Thompson is now tasked with stopping the bleeding of its dwindling viewers and its backside line. CNN staffers have informed Fox Information Digital they’re “deeply annoyed” as important finances cuts and layoffs are more likely to rock the community within the coming months.