(CBrief) – The new boss of CNN, Chris Licht, appears to have gotten fed up with criticisms from “the left” of his reforms at the struggling cable news outlet and has now responded to liberals who are taking issue with his latest programming moves.
After being named the network’s CEO in February, Licht has moved to remake the news company by getting rid of its failed online streaming service CNN+ and dismissing several of the network’s prominent hosts and personalities in an attempt to make coverage less biased toward the left. In an interview with The New York Times, Licht said he wants the network to host a “rational conversation about polarizing issues.”
Interestingly, he said, he has gotten the loudest criticism — “uniformed vitriol,” as he called it — from left-wing figures, which is the audience that CNN catered to for years under previous leadership.
“The uninformed vitriol, especially from the left, has been stunning,” Licht told the Times. “Which proves my point: so much of what passes for news is name-calling, half-truths, and desperation.”
CNN's Chris Licht slams 'uninformed' critics attacking him for making network less partisan https://t.co/OtdEvBcXs4
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) December 19, 2022
The Daily Wire noted:
In his short tenure, Licht has let go of high-profile journalists, columnists, and contributors such as Brian Stelter, John Harwood, Jeffrey Toobin, and Chris Cillizza. Licht has also attempted to balance some of the network’s left-wing slant by bringing on Stephen Gutowski, founder of the firearms reporting site The Reload, as a contributor.
Licht has also moved around some of CNN’s lineup. He moved host Don Lemon out of a prime-time slot and into a morning show with two other cohosts. Licht attempted to move host Jake Tapper into former host Chris Cuomo’s prime-time slot, but Tapper’s tenure there proved to be short lived. Cuomo had been let go by the network months earlier, after an internal investigation reportedly concluded that the host had inappropriately attempted to help his brother, Andrew Cuomo, as the former New York governor was mired in scandal.
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