Some of CNN’s biggest on-air hosts during a meeting Monday in New York pressed WarnerMedia Chief Executive Jason Kilar for details regarding CNN President Jeff Zucker’s resignation.
Mr. Zucker resigned last week, citing his failure to disclose a consensual relationship with a close colleague. The colleague he referred to is CNN Chief Marketing Officer Allison Gollust, who remains at the company.
Anchors including Don Lemon, Brian Stelter, Richard Quest and Alisyn Camerota asked Mr. Kilar a range of questions relating to Mr. Zucker’s departure and its aftermath, including what to tell network viewers and employees about the executive shuffle. Mr. Kilar appeared in the meeting through a video connection.
Mr. Quest, the anchor of CNN’s “Quest Means Business,” asked Mr. Kilar during the question-and-answer session whether he considered alternate decisions that would have allowed Mr. Zucker to stay on instead of having him resign and opening the network to intense scrutiny.
Jeff Zucker at a CNN event in 2019.
Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for WarnerMedia
“There was the possibility of a more imaginative result that would’ve allowed you to keep the captain, instead of throwing the captain overboard while the ship is about to go through icebergs,” Mr. Quest said.
Oliver Darcy, a reporter who covers media at CNN, asked Mr. Kilar whether CNN would pay former “Cuomo Prime Time” host Chris Cuomo a severance package. Mr. Cuomo has hired an attorney after being fired by CNN in December after a network investigation into his efforts to aid his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in responding to allegations of sexual harassment.
Mr. Zucker had previously said CNN wouldn’t pay Chris Cuomo severance.
Mr. Lemon, the host of “Don Lemon Tonight,” followed up on Mr. Darcy’s question, asking whether Mr. Kilar has weighed the signals he might be sending by compensating individuals who break with company standards. Mr. Lemon said during the question-and-answer session that he was asking on behalf of people who posed that question to him.
“Did you think about what message it sends to the journalists in the company and also to the larger public that someone can be found to break with those journalistic standards and then get paid handsomely for it?”
WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar has been meeting with small groups of CNN employees.
Photo: Michael Friberg for The Wall Street Journal
In response, Mr. Kilar said, “Those are all theoreticals.” He declined to comment on whether CNN parent WarnerMedia would pay Chris Cuomo severance, saying he wouldn’t comment on personnel matters. Mr. Kilar said in response to Mr. Lemon’s question that he tries to make personnel decisions with empathy.
A spokesman for Chris Cuomo declined to comment. A spokeswoman for WarnerMedia declined to comment.
Also on the call, Mr. Stelter asked Mr. Kilar when he would address CNN as a whole. Mr. Kilar has been meeting with small groups of employees in the wake of Mr. Zucker’s departure. Last week, he traveled to Washington, D.C., to address employees there, resulting in a fiery exchange with some of the company’s journalists.
“I think we all need you to talk to the entire employee base and help them through this and help them move on past Jeff,” Mr. Stelter said, referring to Mr. Zucker. Mr. Kilar said in response that he would try to help include employees.
At the end of the call, Erin Burnett, the host of CNN’s 7 p.m. hour, said that the network’s journalists needed more information about the circumstances surrounding Mr. Zucker’s departure.
“We’re grieving,” Ms. Burnett said, according to a person familiar with the call. “Moving on will require answers to these questions.”
Write to Benjamin Mullin at [email protected]
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