CNN CEO Chris Licht says boss David Zaslav ‘has my back’
Licht #Licht
Chris Licht, CNN’s top news executive, says he has the support of the outlet’s corporate ownership despite a string of bad press and internal strife at the network since he took over.
As part of a wide-ranging profile published Friday in The Atlantic, Licht was asked directly about his job security and his relationship with David Zaslav, the media titan and chief officer of WarnerBros. Discovery, which owns CNN.
“I don’t feel that at all,” Licht told journalist Tim Alberta when asked about the perception that Zaslav is inappropriately hands on or overly involved in the outlet’s editorial direction. “I feel like I have someone who’s a great partner, who has my back and knows a lot about this business.”
When pressed by Alberta on if he has been allowed to “be himself” on the job since taking over last May, Licht appeared to grow defensive.
“Where does that question come from? What are you getting at? Like, myself?” he asked. “I think it’s very different—a CEO job is just very different. Every word you say is parsed. Every way you look at someone is parsed. It’s just different. So I try to be as much of my authentic self as possible within the natural confines of the job.”
Licht has come under a flurry of criticism both within the network’s ranks and from outside media observers during his first year on the job. CNN continues to suffer some of the steepest ratings declines across the cable news business while Licht sparked bipartisan backlash over a decision to host a town hall with former President Trump that at times took on the vibe of one of his campaign rallies.
CNN’s top boss and his defenders have separately spent the last several months pushing back on a growing narrative that he is trying to change the internal culture and editorial brand of CNN by catering to conservatives or dragging it to the political center.
“This is too important for me to be worried about what someone’s calling me or suggesting I’m trying to be,” Licht told Alberta. “This is so mission-driven and so important. I genuinely am—I get mad, I get frustrated, but it doesn’t, like, affect me. Does that make sense?”
Recent frustrations at CNN have fueled widespread speculation about Licht’s job security.
Zaslav, who has publicly defended the decision to hold the town hall with Trump specifically and Licht’s leadership more generally, initially agreed to be interviewed by Alberta on the record about Licht’s standing atop what the corporations’s leaders have referred to as WBD’s top “reputational asset.”
A representative for Zaslav declined to make him available for an interview after what Alberta described as a disagreement about ground rules.
“I don’t need people to be loyal to Chris Licht. I need people to be loyal to CNN,” Licht told Alberta during one of their final conversations.
The profile in The Atlantic was published a day after the network announced David C. Leavy, a 23-year veteran of WBD and a close confidant of Zaslav, would assume responsibility over “commercial, operational and promotional activities” across CNN as chief operating officer.
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