Chris Licht, a highly successful television producer who announced his intention to restore political balance to CNN and make it more acceptable to Republicans, stepped down as its president and CEO after an increasingly criticized and controversial year running the network, the organization's parent company Warner Brothers said on Wednesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th June, 2023) Chris Licht, a highly successful television producer who announced his intention to restore political balance to CNN and make it more acceptable to Republicans, stepped down as its president and CEO after an increasingly criticized and controversial year running the network, the organization's parent company Warner Brothers said on Wednesday.
"I met with Chris and he will be leaving CNN," Warner Brothers Discovery Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav told the network's staff in a morning editorial call, as quoted by CNN.
Licht resigned almost immediately after the liberal Atlantic magazine published a long 15,000-word article attacking his record and management style.
During his year in office, Licht fired a number of veteran tv correspondents to combat plunging ratings and a perceived collapse of confidence in the network's credibility, especially among conservatives and Republicans. But ratings plummeted even lower when he was there.
Licht was also under fire for allowing Donald Trump to appear in a broadcast interview in which the former US president again denied any personal connection with the storming of the US Capitol in a riot on January 6, 2021.
