Chris Licht is stepping down as president and CEO of CNN. The network's own reporter Oliver Darcy confirmed the news via his Twitter account. CNN also echoed this report on its website, which considered Licht's term of office as "brief and tumultuous."
Bulletin: Chris Licht is out at CNN.
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 7, 2023
Licht's tenure "was stained by a series of severe missteps," the article stated.
Licht, was at the helm of CNN for 16 months, has reportedly left after meeting with David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros., CNN's parent company. 2022 was a turbulent year for the network, as its CNN+ streaming service failed shortly after its launch. Since December of 2021, well-known network personalities such as Chris Cuomo, Jeffrey Toobin, Brian Stelter and Don Lemon have all left.
In addition, a McLaughlin & Associates survey revealed that more than half of CNN's viewers (54%) indicated that they watch the network less and less frequently, while only 13.5% indicated that they have increased their viewership. The main reason is because of its increasingly leftward drift. This was reported by 61% of those who said they consumed the channel's content less frequently. By political ideology, 52% who supported this conclusion consider themselves progressive.
