Veteran CBS executive Chris Licht is expected to be named as CNN's next president, according to a person with knowledge of the decision. We are truth-tellers, focused on informing, not alarming our viewers, newly installed Licht wrote in a memo to employees this month, saying there needs to be room for nuance. The announcement comes as Trumps lies about the 2020 election, and incitement of the Capitol mob, are front and center at the January 6 hearings airing on CNN and other major networks. He's a senior New York Police Department official who also has a strong history in news. American television newsman and producer (born 1971), S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, "BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Chris Licht, executive producer/showrunner of 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' and EVP of special programming at CBS Corp", "A Brush With Death-Newtown Native To Share 'What I Learned', "Syracuse University alum Chris Licht selected as new CNN president", "Syracuse Cuts Ribbon on Upgrades At S.I. Chris Licht, the new president of CNN, is settling into one of the most challenging jobs in news, and questions abound regarding how he will guide the network out of the extreme turmoil it has. On Oct. 13, Mr. Licht made his debut in front of Warner Brothers Discoverys board at a hotel in Los Angeles, where he outlined both his growth and content strategy. Licht was born to Susan Mary and Dr. Peter David Licht. Trumps Relationship With Jared and Ivanka. [24], In late 2022, Licht received criticism as CNN terminated the contracts of several long-time correspondents including Brian Stelter, John Harwood and Jeffrey Toobin. Last week, in fact, media reports suggested that Licht was trying to lure his old colleague Joe Scarborough to CNN. Mr. Licht acknowledged that prime time remains an open canvas. He said he and his colleagues were meeting and throwing things against the wall, looking at off-the-beaten path opportunities. Among the names tossed out have been entertainment, comedy and sports figures. If he were to put strong Republicans on the air, his hosts would revolt. Scarboroughs smug show is nothing more than a sustained attack on the GOP and a platform to air his grievances against his erstwhile party. Whether by design or happenstance, he believed CNN had tacked left, a pale version of MSNBC that nonetheless alienated wide parts of the American electorate with a focus on politics and the president at the time, Mr. Trump. Oh, man, you used to be in news, remember? Mr. Colbert recalled telling him. Although he spent equal time with Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Mr. Licht was irritated that his visit was billed as an apology tour and effort to coax Republicans back onto the network part of CNNs perceived move to the right. Many more millions would be needed. Notably, the two hosts, the former Republican politician Joe Scarborough and the more liberal former CBS correspondent Mika Brzezinski, straddled the political divide. I think we can be a beacon in regaining that trust by being an organization that exemplifies the best characteristics of journalism: fearlessly speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo, questioning group-think, and educating viewers and readers with straightforward facts and insightful commentary, while always being respectful of differing viewpoints, Licht wrote in the memo. Among the reforms, Licht directed network anchors and producers to stop using the phrase "The Big Lie" to describe attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 election - in part because it's a. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who's taking over CNN. He is the morning news co-anchor for Channel 13 News. But for Mr. Licht, nothing less than democracy itself was at stake. . In May, Licht circulated a memo to staffers declaring that too many people have lost trust in news media and declaring that CNN staffers would be advocates for the truth in the future. Chris Licht is known for CBS This Morning (1992), CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley (2011) and Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out The News (2020). According to a swath of US media reports, CNN has entered high gear in a reformist effort to phase out overt political partisanship, reduce the frequency of breaking news alerts, dissuade non-primetime anchors from airing their views, and broadly to avoid presenting the extremes of political thought of either side, left or right. The Base? We will put things in perspective. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Rather, it was an attempt to explore controversial issues from varied perspectives not to tell people what to think, as he put it, but how to think, or what he called a blueprint for how to make decisions.. In addition, Licht has directed CNN producers to dial down the networks use of networks use of breaking news bannersduring live coverage a tactic that was embraced under Zuckers watch. Who is Simon Guobadia? In 2005, Mr. Licht moved to NBCs sibling network, MSNBC, soon becoming an executive producer for Morning Joe, which he helped develop into an improbable success in its hotly competitive morning time slot. Which [Jeff] Zucker regretted, Swisher noted, referring to Lichts predecessor, who famously gave Trump wall-to-wall coveragefrom broadcasting rallies to regularly letting him call in to news programsduring his first bid. A contract ensued. By almost any measure, he has had a rough start. [CDATA[*/Insticator.ad.loadAd("div-insticator-ad-1");Insticator.ad.loadAd("div-insticator-ad-2");Insticator.load("em",{id : "6cf39429-6912-4a91-b1e2-3e9365a5e9c6"});/*]]>*/. CNN had also become the poster child for the poisoned relationship between former President Donald J. Trump and mainstream media organizations. Licht has an estimated net worth of $15 million. June 16, 2022 CNN's newly installed CEO, Chris Licht, reportedly wants to phase out the use of "the big lie" when referring to Donald Trump 's "stolen election" claims, a change that comes amid. The chemistry is great. The personal health crisis was a defining. It happened to fit where CNN was going and they really embraced it., The success of Lichts reconfiguration, Pekary says, will depend on whether the bills get paid. Zaslav called Licht . The list includes media correspondent Brian Stelter, whose show Reliable Sources was canceled last month, as well as legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and political correspondent John Harwood. Read More Maggie Vespa NBC News Salary, Age, Height, Husband, Net WorthContinue. Your jobs have meaning. We're brought up to believe there's two different political parties with different points of view, and we don't take sides in honest disagreements between them. (2001), Listen toVFsLittle Gold MenPodcast for Unrivaled Awards-Season Coverage. But it wont have anyone on who says its sunny out. (Since then, the show has gained slightly among total viewers.). The Republican Donor Class Seems Ready to Dump Trump. So tell us, who is CNN's new CEO and chairman Chris Licht, and how does he want to reshape CNN exactly? It was a good time reset. As a child, hed created a fictional TV news network, WBC, and produced his own newscast using a VCR camera in his basement in Newtown, Conn. At about the age of 9, he met the NBC legal correspondent Carl Stern on a family vacation and, in Mr. Lichts telling, stuck to him like glue. Mr. Licht pried the newsmans phone number from him and used it regularly. Nazi murders of Jews to 'hating someone for political views' Then came the politically divisive response to the Covid pandemic, a European land war, climate disasters, police violence, mass shootings and now an economic reckoning. But the larger point may be that audiences are no longer as engaged by US domestic politics as they were during the Trump administration when most news organizations grew their audiences significantly. It's not clear any outlet has perfected the formula to cover a twice-impeached, insurrection-inciting, 2020 election-denying, subject of several state and federal investigations running for a second term in the White House. With Fox News and MSNBC having already staked out the right and left ends of the political spectrum, attracting the middle (what Mr. Licht referred to as normal people) has proved elusive. Who is Kristina Partsinevelos? Over the course of the subsequent seven years at KNBC, he advanced to the position of special projects producer, oversaw the stations Olympic coverage, and eventually created Channel 4 News at 11.. /*