Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav defended CNN’s recent gestures at bipartisanship in a new interview, saying the news outlet is making an effort to reform the left-leaning reputation it developed during the Trump presidency.
The decision to feature former president Donald Trump in a town hall continues to provoke internal dissent among the network’s journalists, but Zaslav thinks CNN CEO Chris Licht’s new approach is working. CNN is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
“Republicans are back on the air. Republicans weren’t on the air,” explained Zaslav Thursday, as quoted by the Daily Beast. “During the McCarthy hearings, for those four days, we had 75 Republicans on the air, 41 went on us before they went on Fox and the reason is, as I’ve said, and Chris has too, to a number of them, they are not going to get one more vote on Fox News. They’ve already got that.”
Zaslav explained that Licht is working to rebuild the network and that it’s going to take some time. The Warner Bros. Discovery chief said there has been a perception in the past that the network is “left-leaning,” but explained that perception is improving, citing a YouGov poll of viewer trust in the network. “Our view is, there’s advocacy networks on either side. We have the best journalists in the world. We need to show both sides of every issue,” Zaslav said.
The CEO added that advertisers are responding well to the changes. “Advertisers are interested in CNN again,” said Zaslav. “They don’t want to be part of an advocacy network. We’ve had meeting after meeting and they say, ‘We are with you.’”
CNN frequently lags behind Fox News and MSNBC in terms of ratings and even saw lower ratings than conservative network Newsmax last Friday night, two days after the Trump town hall.
Zaslav cited Kaitlan Collins’s recent appointment to host a primetime show at 9 p.m. as part of Licht’s rebuilding efforts. Two former primetime anchors — Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon — have been forced out due to their respective scandals.
Collins worked for the conservative outlet the Daily Caller before joining CNN and is believed by Licht to be better able to connect with viewers between the coasts, the New York Times reported. Though she is untested as a solo primetime host, currently hosting CNN This Morning alongside Poppy Harlow, the anchor moderated the Trump town hall, which continues to generate controversy.
Licht has defended the decision to invite Trump and scolded CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy for his “emotional” reporting on the subject.
Debate over the propriety of inviting Trump in the first place continued Wednesday. Chief CNN International anchor Christiane Amanpour said she had a robust exchange with Licht over the town hall.
Speaking to Columbia Journalism School graduates, the journalist said Trump’s tendencies are well known and that she “would have dropped the mic at ‘nasty person,'” referring to Trump’s ad-hominem comment directed at Collins.
“Be truthful, not neutral,” said Amanpour. “‘Bothsidesism’ is not always objectivity. It does not get you to the truth. Drawing false moral or factual equivalence is neither objective or truthful.”
National Review reached out to CNN for comment on both developments, but did not hear back by press time.