Seen and Unseen: The return of CNNs fact-checker
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In the week since CEO Chris Licht was dismissed, CNN has given off "an aura of divisiveness" and signaled a return to the earlier Jeff Zucker-era of liberal opinion programing that famously tarnished CNN’s once-nonpartisan reputation, according to media watchdogs.
"The inmates are running the asylum again over at CNN in the post-Licht era. And the piousness is so thick you can cut a knife with it," Fox News contributor Joe Concha said.
"CNN gets to be the resistance network again. The inmates are happy," Concha added. "They're also insufferable in their hypocrisy."
Licht said he wanted to tamp down the liberal, anti-Trump approach that defined his predecessor Zucker. But he faced internal dissension throughout his tenure, which came to a head when he offered former President Trump a chance to appear in a CNN town hall last month. Licht was fired last week after a little more than a year on the job, having lost the faith of both the newsroom and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
CNN primetime anchor Jake Tapper said it could be dangerous for the network to air Trumps remarks to supporters live. (CNN/Screenshot)
NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck, who observes CNN as part of his day-to-day at the media watchdog group, believes coverage of the historic federal indictment of Trump has shown the network’s staffers have scrapped the vision of appearing fair and balanced.
"Spending more than a few seconds watching CNN over the last week, it's abundantly clear the network has almost immediately returned to how things were under Zucker," Houck told Fox News Digital.
"The talent comes across as victorious in a TV version of ‘Mean Girls’ against this supposedly threatening bully in Licht," Houck continued, noting Licht had never run a newsroom before in his career.
Licht quickly fell out of favor with many CNN staffers when he announced plans to scrap CNN+ before he even officially started. He was then shamed for sitting in an office several floors from the newsroom, and criticized as aloof and detached from CNN’s biggest stars.
Licht was also publicly criticized by reporters such as Christiane Amanpour for even airing the Trump town hall, while Anderson Cooper told viewers he understood if they decided to ditch CNN forever for airing it. Cooper and Jake Tapper both reportedly groaned about Licht to Warner Bros. Discovery honchos, and CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy publicly undermined his now-former boss at every turn.
"If anything, Licht's tenure showed us how bitter and thin-skinned so many CNN employees are to views outside their bubble. They have more than an aversion to outside criticism. Rather, it's treated like a deadly allergy," Houck said.
DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall agreed, telling Fox News Digital that "internal forces at CNN succeeded in getting Licht canned" to prevent his attempt to "drag CNN back to a more objective, professional approach to journalism and away from the activist, agenda-driven vision of the Zucker era."
The network’s liberal decision makers "surely feel emboldened with their new-found power and can revert to their ‘Trump resistance’ approach to journalism," McCall said.
"The Trump legal troubles give the entrenched CNN activists the chance to again operationalize their ideological approach to news," McCall added. "With Licht out of the way, there is apparently nobody around who can advocate for a balanced, measured approach to news coverage."
Tapper told CNN audiences on Tuesday night that it would be "dangerous" to carry a Trump speech live. Those comments came roughly one month after Licht’s infamous Trump town hall, in which the GOP presidential frontrunner was given a chance to reach a non-conservative audience. But those days appear to be dwindling, as Tapper also rebuked CNN producers for showing Trump with supporters at a Miami restaurant.
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"The folks in the control room, I don't need to see any more of that," Tapper said. "He's trying to turn this into a spectacle, a campaign ad. That's enough of that."
Concha found it ironic that "Tapper was preaching about the importance of truth and not putting liars on the air" right before a lengthy interview with Andrew McCabe.
"The same Andrew McCabe who was fired from the FBI for lying about leaking to the press," Concha said.
In his media newsletter "Reliable Sources," Darcy took a shot at his former boss as he gloated about CNN not airing the speech. Darcy is often sharply critical of conservative media and Republicans.
"The move to not air Trump's remarks live notably represented a departure from how the network handled Trump's post-New York arraignment speech. In that case, under former boss Chris Licht, CNN aired most of Trump's remarks," Darcy wrote.
Darcy’s crusade against Licht picked up steam following the network’s now-infamous Trump town hall. "It's hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening," Darcy wrote.
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CNN appears to be leaning back into the Jeff Zucker-era of anti-Trump programming in the immediate aftermath of CEO Chris Licht’s exit from the company. (CNN/Getty)
Grabien Media founder Tom Elliott, who also monitors cable news on a day-to-day basis, also noticed a return to the Zucker era.
"Unfortunately for CNN, the lunatics have reclaimed control of the asylum," Elliott told Fox News Digital. "Having outlasted Licht, Darcy was only too happy to celebrate CNN returning to its 24/7 [Trump Derangement Syndrome] programming, bragging in his newsletter about Tapper forgoing news in favor of extended anti-Trump sermonizing from CNN talking heads."
Elliott believes Licht sincerely wanted to fix the network, but CNN’s fact-checker Daniel Dale appearing on the network following a post-Licht Trump speech.
"Dale was back on TV, this time spreading misinformation that Biden wasn’t involved in the case against Trump -- when court filings have shown he’s the one who pulled in the FBI. That segment is actually a perfect metaphor for everything Chris Licht was trying to fix," Elliott said.
"After inching back in the direction of being an actual news network, the hyper partisans comprising the network's staff orchestrated a successful coup d'CNN," Elliott continued. "And all the bad behavior that had collapsed the station's ratings is now returning in full force. Absent Licht's adult leadership, CNN’s returned to hyperventilating about Trump 24/7."
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Conservatives aren’t the only ones criticizing CNN’s rekindled anti-Trump approach. Democratic strategist Kevin Walling feels each individual network should "make editorial decisions for themselves" regarding coverage of Trump, but CNN is going about things the wrong way in the post-Licht era.
"I’m always going to air on the side of the First Amendment and the need for the public to see and hear from candidates running for any office, but especially the presidency," Walling told Fox News Digital.
"I don’t think airing the former president’s speeches, despite them being filled with lies and false statements, does irreparable harm to the electorate," Walling continued. "If anything, it reinforces the opinion held by a majority of Americans that Trump is untrustworthy and has committed serious crimes against the United States."
The alleged changes to Licht’s CNN that many on the left felt betrayed by weren’t even particularly significant aside from letting viewers hear from Trump, according to Houck. The network toned down the snarky chyrons made famous during the Zucker regime and made an effort to book GOP lawmakers, but Houck believes "Licht failed to make wholesale changes to the tone and tenor" of CNN.
"Why? He refused to rip the network down to the studs with personnel still loyal to Zucker to the point of idolatry. The snark is back. The juvenile chyrons have returned. For any conservative or non-liberal who tunes in, there's a vibe that CNN has returned to becoming pugnacious, almost taunting you to scream at them through the TV," Houck said.
"And an aura of divisiveness is back like a teenager who put on too much body spray for a school dance. CNN must think returning to being a disingenuous MSNBC will help resurrect their ratings," Houck continued. "But viewers left, right, and center have -- or at least should have -- eyes wide open for what CNN is."