The broadcast was widely criticized, inside and outside the network. Some on-air talent looked dazed after the town hall had wrapped up, and Christiane Amanpour, one of the network’s top hosts, took issue with the forum, saying she and Chris Licht “respectfully disagree” about allowing Mr. Trump to appear on a town hall in that format.
Mr. Licht defended the decision to host the town hall, and said “America was served very well” by the broadcast. The anchor Anderson Cooper argued on air that the network’s forum with Mr. Trump prepared voters to make an informed decision.
“After last night, none of us can say, ‘I didn’t know what’s out there,’” Mr. Cooper said.
Staff Revolt
Amid the difficulty, Mr. Licht has confronted a crisis of confidence among his staff members, many of whom think he is out of touch with journalists at the network.
After joining CNN last year, Mr. Licht took offices on the 22nd floor, high above the newsroom, which some of his employees interpreted as aloofness.
Some employees were particularly stung by Mr. Licht’s remarks to The Atlantic criticizing the network’s coverage of Covid-19, which many employees were hearing for the first time.
Over the last few months, many staffers have called Mr. Licht’s predecessor, Mr. Zucker, to air their grievances about the network’s leadership since his departure. A spokeswoman for Mr. Zucker told The New York Times, “It is wholly unsurprising that Jeff Zucker, the architect of CNN’s unprecedented success, would have deep misgivings about the direction the network has taken since he left.”
On his call with staffers Monday, Mr. Licht said he was moving his office to a lower floor, and closed on an optimistic note, harking back to his roots as a TV producer trying to “make shows as good as they can be.”
“And that’s what I’ll be leaning into alongside of you,” Mr. Licht said.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
