Chris Licht, who was named as CNN’s chairman and CEO about a year ago, will depart the corporate news network, said the chief executive of CNN’s parent company.
David Zaslav, the head of Warner Bros. Discovery which owns CNN, said that he “met with Chris and he will be leaving CNN,” according to a report from CNN’s media reporter, Oliver Darcy, published on Wednesday. His remarks were made during a conference call with CNN’s employees.
In the article, Zaslav did not say when Licht would be leaving the company. The Epoch Times has contacted the company for comment.
Licht’s job was “never going to be easy,” Zaslav noted, praising the executive for what he called an “amazing career.” Licht was named as CEO by Zaslav to replace Jeff Zucker, who was forced out under a corporate merger of the company’s parent company and whose tenure was punctuated by a shift toward the political left.
“For a number of reasons things didn’t work out and that’s unfortunate,” Zaslav told CNN staffers, according to the article. “It’s really unfortunate. And ultimately that’s on me. And I take full responsibility for that.”
Zaslav told CNN staffers that the firm is “in the process of conducting a wide search” to find a new CEO, but he stipulated that it will “take a while.” That process is happening internally and externally, he said.
In recent days, Licht came under fire for his defense of a CNN town hall event in mid-May that featured former President Donald Trump. Some CNN staffers, including Darcy, were publicly critical of the event, while Licht said that the event was necessary to give a voice to Trump supporters and noted they comprise about half the country’s electorate.
“It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,” Darcy said after the town hall event.
After the town hall, Licht said that “it is our job to get those answers and hold him accountable,” claiming that covering Trump is “messy and tricky.” He added: “America was served by what we did last night.”
