Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center irrationally hated former CNN chief Jeff Zucker, to the point that it started hurling anti-Semitic "puppet master" slurs at him (he's Jewish). It then pressured his successor, Chris Licht, to pull CNN to the right (even though, as Media Matters' Craig Harrington pointed out, the only people who had a problem with CNN aggressively covering Trump were Republians). And the MRC continued to mock CNN's moves under Licht as insufficiently right-wing:
- Tim Graham complained in a March 19 post that "Nothing CNN CEO Chris Licht has done to revamp CNN programming as helped its ratings woes," noting the failure of the channel adding a repeat of a commentary from Bill Maher's HBO show.
- Graham whined about CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale in an April 12 post that began, "It’s amazing that CNN CEO Chris Licht once came to the Capitol to meet with congressional Republicans in an effort to rebuild trust, as if CNN was going to change. It hasn’t." He added, "It’s funny that Licht would fire red-hot Trump haters like Brian Stelter and Chris Cuomo, yet keep Don Lemon and Daniel Dale."
- After CNN fired Don Lemon later that month, MRC chief Brent Bozell huffed: “What a trainwreck of a network this is...Licht was brought on to fix a sinking ship and he’s just been poking more holes.”
- Curtis Houck mocked in an April 26 post that "The public relations skills of Chris Licht’s CNN were, shall we say, less than adequate" because Lemon's firing overshadowed the announcement of a new CNN late-night show featuring Charles Barkley and Gayle King. Which, of course, caused Houck to rehash old attacks on King for being friends with the Obama and having a purported "record of ultra-liberal punditry masquerading as common sense."
We've documented how the MRC cheered that Licht reportedly "put the fear of God" in CNN media resporter Oliver Darcy over his apparently factually accurate coverage of CNN's debacle of a town hall featuring Donald Trump. Houck followed with a sneering May 18 post headlined "Everyone Point and Laugh at How Much Lefty Journos Now Hate Working at CNN":
A former CNN media reporter, Puck News’s Dylan Byers wrote Wednesday night that CNN is currently “a seismic mess” and in a state of “depleted morale” and “overwhelming sense of frustration and resentment” with employees enraged by boss Chris Licht in general and, specifically, his decision to host a town hall with former President Trump.
The employees remained hellbent on running the asylum as they longed for the days of former boss and puppetmaster, Jeff Zucker, directing their every move and enabling them to be as wildly progressive and hateful toward conservatives as their heart’s desired. Instead, they’ve been beset with someone CNNers see “as Captain Queeg, the antagonist from Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny.”
Byers framed his piece through the lens of a Columbia Journalism commencement address and CNN International/PBS anchor Christiane Amanpour gave that directly lambasted Licht.
Byers conceded that “Licht has a difficult job” consisting of, along with “replac[ing] a legend” in their Dear Leader, “oversee a global news organization during a time of foreign war and a looming presidential election, manage through the exigencies of a fresh corporate merger… oh, and oversee a unit of thousands of journalists, many of whom are world famous, some of whom are prima donnas, and some more of whom are indifferent to managing up, his vision, etcetera.”
Yes, Houck repeated the "puppetmaster" slur of Zucker again. He also complained that "Byers also had [CNN host Christiane] Amanpour take a childish potshot at Kaitlan Collins, who was the Trump town hall moderator and named Wednesday as the new host of CNN’s 9:00 p.m. Eastern hour." The MRC actually defended Collins' performance at the town hall, but it didn't tell readers that she started as a right-wing reporter for Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller.
Then it was back to whining that Licht was still allowing criticism of Republicans; Brad Wilmouth complained in a June 1 post about the author of a book noting conservatives' bent toward authoritarianism: "CNN CEO Chris Licht told Republicans it was going to be different....but it's not."
Then came a massive profile of Licht in The Atlantic, which demonstrated that Licht was mismanaging CNN by fundamentally misreading the channel, thinking (like the MRC) that it is much more liberal than it actually is and demanding this his employees pull thing further right. Unsurprisingly, Houck declared that the victim of the Licht profile was Licht, and he devoted a lengthy June 6 post to defending Licht's methods and blaming CNN employees who still fondly remember Zucker as the real bad guys:
Starting Friday with a 15,000-word tome The Atlantic’s Tim Alberta, CNN boss Chris Licht’s legitimacy took on a deluge of water with one story after another seeking to end Licht’s tenure beset by a disastrous morning show, a lack of network cohesion, and sagging ratings.
Licht was hired by Discovery head honcho David Zaslav to move CNN to the center and away from the permanent hysteria, but he had one problem: His predecessor and former puppetmaster Jeff Zucker.
Between Alberta’s story and others from former CNNer Brian Stelter (writing in New York magazine), Axios, the Daily Beast, The New York Times, Puck, and Semafor, they revealed a fatal error by Licht, which was a refusal to clean house of Zuckerbots that, while seismic, would have allowed for real changes. Instead, Zucker undermined Licht through his team of minions.
[...]
And, based on any recent NewsBusters blog on CNN, it’s easy to see how so many Zuckerbots have felt no need to change their tone as, if Licht ever did become a micromanager like Zucker, they could just whine in the press.
Houck went on to gush that "Licht gave an admirable answer about what the mission of CNN should be," adding:
Licht further denounced his network (and the press writ large) for their all-hysteria, all-the-time, Trump-centric approach as “everything is an 11” (on a scale of one to 10) and, in turn “it means that when there’s something really awful happening, we’re kind of numb to it.”
Likely to the chagrin of CNNers who read the piece, Licht said the press made it their “mission ...to go after” Trump by “put[ting] a jersey on and got into the game” to actively fight Trump out of “visceral hatred”.
Licht added that, by doing so, no one’s “mind” was being “change[d].” He also believed Republicans should be welcome (though Alberta pitched a hissy fit over allowing any Republican who voted to object to the 2020 election results).
He continued to put Zucker’s version of CNN on blast, touching on everything from COVID to CNN being a bubble to elitism to liberal definitions of diversity fixating on race to policing to transgenderism (click “expand”):
[...]
In one particular anecdote, Licht spoke to a group of college students and blasted MSNBC as “trafficking in hysteria” and Fox News as “a duplicitous propaganda outfit,” but insisting it’d be seen as “noise” if CNN kept obsessing over Fox.
Houck, meanwhile, didn't appear bothered by the fact that Fox News takes an "all-hysteria, all-the-time" approach with all things Biden. He also didn't explain why Republicans shouldn't be criticized for voting to object to the 2020 election results given that they had no credible evidence to justify it.
Houck demanded that Licht fire anyone who he and the MRC didn't like for failure to be right-wing enough, offering a convenient hit list:
Licht should be given credit for pointing CNN in the right direction. But that’s where the praise should stop.
Alberta portrayed a man fixated on wanting to do things differently (even grunting about Zucker at the gym). But if Licht wanted to do that, he and boss Zaslav should ripped CNN down to the studs.
Imagine if Warner Bros. Discovery had come in and not only had Stelter and John Harwood been axed, but also disingenuous leftist journos and pundits such as Alisyn Camerota, Laura Coates, S.E. Cupp, Daniel Dale, Jamie Gangel, Brianna Keilar, Andrew McCabe, Donie O’Sullivan, Abby Phillip, Arlette Saenz, Sara Sidner, Jim Sciutto, Bill Weir, and, of course, Jim Acosta and Oliver Darcy.
Houck concluded by further complaining that Licht didn't clean house to his satifaction and expressing an additional fit of Zucker Derangement Syndrome:
Given this tsunami of negative stories, there are a host of conclusions. One, even media executives fall victim to treating national journalists as their friend when they should know most (if not all) will sell out their best friends for a story.
Second, Licht and Zaslav’s mismatched strategy of talking big changes but not cleaning house came back to bite them. It’s hard to have a company pulling in the same direction when most of the workforce actively hates because you’re not Daddy Jeff.
That leads to a third point: Never underestimate Zucker's vindictiveness.
Next: Has Licht watched a second of his own network? Aside from covering more stories, an occasional Republican appearance, a vapid new line-up, and new lower-third, nothing has changed on the bias front.
And, finally, Licht made a mistake he could have avoided if he watched more than a few minutes of Zucker’s CNN (or asked any of us at NewsBusters): Please fire, don’t empower, Don Lemon.
A few days later, an update was added to Houck's post noting that "Licht left the company amid a mountain of resistance and controversy."
