'Embarrassing end to a shameful chapter': CNN boss' downfall shocks few
CNN boss Chris Licht got canned following a tumultuous one-year tenure and just days after a devastating profile raised serious questions about his leadership.
Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery dumped Licht on Wednesday in the wake of the 15,000-word profile by The Atlantic's Tim Alberta, who revealed that Licht had lost the support of CNN employees and the media conglomerate's CEO David Zaslav, and just weeks after the widely criticized town hall with Donald Trump.
The writing seemed to be on the wall, but many were surprised by how swift his downfall came.
"Chris Licht: the latest in a line of media leaders who burned their own house down with their determination to be antiwoke and prove their 'independence' from liberals who criticize them on twitter," tweeted journalist Wesley Lowery.
"The only option after Licht is me, yeah?" said Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, posting a photo of the "Succession" character Kendall Roy, the scion of that show's fictional media dynasty.
"I agree with this and would add: Although this vision — to coax Trump, his allies and MAGA viewers into seeing CNN as equally theirs — was responsible for the town hall debacle, it was never publicly doubted by Licht or Zaslav," said Jay Rosen, a New York University journalism professor.
"Enjoy the news of Chris Licht's departure at CNN today, but know that Warner Bros. Discovery will almost certainly replace him with someone worse," wrote former Obama administration official Brandon Friedman.
"Now that Chris Licht is out at CNN, he's free to pursue his true passion: roaming the countryside in search of various Republicans he can interview," tweeted journalist Aaron Rupar.
"Over the weekend, Chris Licht still claimed there was a path forward for him at CNN," said former CNN host Brian Stelter, who lost his job under Licht. "Some people politely tried to tell him that there was no coming back. No recovering. He did not, or could not, believe it."
"From a friend who says what many alums think: "As a former CNNer, there is no joy in this. What an embarrassing end to a shameful chapter in this network's history. I and so many others lost our jobs for his non-existent vision, and there seems to be no clear end to this chaos,'" Stelter added.
"We were all told that Chris Licht was a news wunderkind a year ago — but his bio would tell you that he was unqualified to run a huge team of professional journalists covering stories around the world," said journalist Bill Grueskin.
"Licht isn’t out at CNN because employees bristled over his lame comments," wrote author Jared Yates Sexton. "If his Trump Town Hall gambit had worked and the network hasn’t sunk behind NewsMax and possibly even the Soap Opera Network he’d still be gainfully employed Simply put, his 'anti-woke' garbage failed."