At stake is the future of CNN, arguably one of the most iconic and influential news brands in the world — one that can make or break a presidential candidate as a divided America heads into the 2024 election cycle.
chief was there on vacation on March 31, while the current Warner Bros. Discovery CEO was on hand for the Saudi-backed FII Institute’s Global Priority Summit. As corporate leaders mingled with Saudi princesses, Zucker approached Zaslav with tears in his eyes. Zucker complained that, his CNN successor, was unfairly maligning him in the press, according to sources familiar with the conversation. Zucker insisted he would never deploy such a low-blow tactic.
“Any allegation or insinuation that Jeff has made any effort to purchase CNN is unequivocally false,” says a spokeswoman for Zucker who denied that Zaslav and Zucker discussed Licht at the Faena Hotel. “He has never had any meeting or conversation about buying CNN with anyone.” Zucker, whose CNN found its defining tone on the tumultuous 2016 campaign trail, thrives in chaos. And his attempted power grab comes at a time of profound instability for the industry, with Fox News and MSNBC both facing questions about the future of their primetime lineups.
Zucker’s quest to recapture the CNN throne began a few months after he was fired for cause in February 2022 by then-parent company WarnerMedia after a third-party investigation found that he engaged in an affair with Allison Gollust, a PR executive. The investigation also found that Zucker and Gollust violated the company’s news standards and practices via their cozy relationship with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Around the same time, Zucker approached Jeff Bezos, Laurene Powell Jobs and Alex Soros about investing in his CNN bid, according to those same sources. “He has never discussed buying CNN with Jeff Bezos, Laurene Powell Jobs or Alex Soros. Jeff has never met or spoken to Alex Soros,” Zucker’s spokeswoman says.
The group of foreign investors allegedly tied to a Zucker CNN gambit would likely spark intense scrutiny from the federal government. Nevena Simidjiyska, a partner at Fox Rothschild who specializes in regulatory law, says the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which determines the effect of any such transactions on U.S. national security, could prevent an investment of this kind.
Inside the halls of CNN, the specter of Zucker hovered long after his ouster. Zucker pals like Don Lemon were suspicious of the Zaslav regime and the new overlord’s desire to push CNN to the political center. And that tension made Licht unpopular internally and in the broader industry. He was branded aloof by the press, while agents — particularly UTA’s Jay Sures, who represents some of CNN’s biggest stars, including Lemon — bristled because he didn’t play ball with them on talent deals.
Several former Zucker colleagues note the disconnect between Byers faulting Licht for a widely ridiculed Donald Trump town hall on May 10 but failing to mention Zucker’s decadeslong entanglement with the former president. “Zucker aided and abetted the rise of Donald Trump, plain and simple, no question about it. And it worked to his advantage,” says Lisa Napoli, author of “Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News.
By any objective measure, the Licht era was rocky, if not disastrous — from the much-derided Trump town hall to nosediving ratings. Yet he dodged every bullet until the Atlantic piece, a startling takedown of his leadership style in which Licht’s every quote was presented to its worst advantage. The chattering classes devoured the story, but some within CNN saw it as a coordinated strike to impose maximum damage on the reeling news chief.
At least four people were fired as a direct result of the story, including Licht, Dornic, CNN’s lead spokesperson Kris Coratti Kelly and Licht’s chief of staff Devan Cayea. As CNN CEO, Licht was in over his head. Unlike Zucker, who ran NBCUniversal before he joined the network in 2013, Licht had never run anything close to a sprawling international operation like CNN, with its workforce of nearly 4,000. Some say he deserved more time, noting that Zucker’s first year also was filled with hiccups. Others say Zaslav’s mandate to bring CNN back to the center may have been an impossible task.
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