Former CNN boss Chris Licht spoke candidly about what led to his 2023 ouster from the network, suggesting he faced resistance to “change” from staff.
In an interview Saturday at the New York Press Club’s Journalism Conference, Licht said it was his “mission” when he was hired to restore America’s “trust” in CNN and chalked up his firing as mere “business.” He said he even remains friends with the man who fired him, parent company Warner Brother Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
Licht was then asked by ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith whether he could “pinpoint” what exactly led to his firing, citing examples like the CNN Trump town hall and the now-infamous Atlantic profile that painted him in a negative light, both having sparked backlash among staff.
“When you try to change something dramatically, you can’t do it alone. You’ve got to build the trust of the organization. They have to believe in you. And I did not build that trust,” Licht said. “I was not able to, in the time that I was there, build trust so that people would tune out the noise and sort of follow me into that.”
Former CNN CEO Chris Licht spoke candidly about his firing from the network during an appearance at the New York Press Club’s Journalism Conference. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)
“Because of time? Or because of something else?” Smith asked.
“Time’s an element of it,” Licht responded. “We have to remember where things were at that time. It was a crazy – I think everyone could objectively say it was a crazy time, particularly in that organization, but I’m not letting myself off the hook.”
“I think when you try to have a bold way of going forward, you have to be confident and you have to show confidence in it so people follow you, but there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance and I still work on dialing that and I think sometimes I was on the wrong side of that.”
“The Atlantic article I absolutely should not have done,” he continued. “Speaking of arrogance, imagine saying yes after, by the way, saying no several times, but at the end, saying yes because you know what, when this comes out in a year, I will have saved everything. This is gonna be an article that’s going to be so positive because in a year, I did it. Imagine that arrogance now that I look back. Now, I hadn’t failed at anything before. So it was I absolutely thought, you know what, it’s been a year, they’re going to be writing about ‘wow, look at all these great things that have happened.’ So, no, I should have done that. Definitely should not have taken a reporter to the gym. If I can say one thing to anybody, do not bring a reporter to the gym.”
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Licht said there were CNN staffers that “didn’t want change” as he attempted to stear the struggling network in a different direction. ( Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Licht defended the Trump town hall as he did during the blowback against CNN, saying, “I still believe today it was the right thing to do.” And while he reiterated his regret about not disclosing to viewers that the New Hampshire town hall was filled with Trump supporters and center-right voters, he pointed to their positive reactions to then-candidate Donald Trump as being significant in its own right.
“Remember, we hadn’t seen Trump for a very long time. That was the first time he answered very tough questions in a long time. And the fact that his shtick resonated with voters in New Hampshire, that’s part of the story, but people at home had to be told that and that’s one thing I would have done differently,” Licht said.
He continued, “So why was it? I think it’s all of that… There are those that didn’t want change, and how I reacted to those people, you know, I picked some fights I shouldn’t have picked. There’s some things I should – some alliances I should have built, or people I should have trusted more. There’s people I should have trusted less. But, you know, there’s not a leader in any organization that doesn’t have those self-reflections.”
A spokesperson for CNN declined to comment.
Licht was handpicked by Zaslav in 2022 to help revive CNN’s viewership and restore its journalistic credibility after the network spent years building a reputation for being an anti-Trump news organization under Licht’s predecessor, Jeff Zucker.
Licht defended CNN’s town hall with then-candidate DonaldTrump, which sparked backlash from liberal viewers and network staffers alike. (Screenshot/CNN)
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CNN’s rank-and-file resisted Licht’s efforts to remove the spectacle from its coverage. Among his major moves were dismissing prominent liberal on-air figures, including Brian Stelter, Don Lemon and Jeffrey Toobin.
However, Licht had completely lost the trust of CNN staff after the network hosted Trump town hall in May 2023, which sparked unprecedented fury from within the newsroom. Licht was fired by Zaslav weeks later.
Fast-forward to November 2024 as financial woes and dismal viewership continue to plague the network. Many of Licht’s decisions were reversed – Stelter was rehired as a media analyst, Toobin and Lemon have made multiple appearances as guests – and CNN’s anti-Trump coverage came back in a roaring fashion through Election Day.
CNN’s current honcho Mark Thompson is now tasked with stopping the bleeding of its dwindling audience and its bottom line. CNN staffers have told Fox News Digital they’re “deeply frustrated” as significant budget cuts and layoffs are likely to rock the network in the coming months.