Former CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter journeyed over to CNBC’s The Exchange on Wednesday to react to Chris Licht stepping down as CEO of CNN and to claim that he and others opposed to Licht’s vision were simply “advocating for the truth.” Meanwhile, in other humorous developments, CNBC.com media reporter Alex Sherman condemned Licht for killing off CNN’s “north star”: CNN+.
Stelter’s comments where set up by Sherman present the dilemma that Licht’s eventual replacement will face:
The question now is if you’re going to find a new leader, do you task that new leader with a new vision for CNN? Or do you just keep, kind of, repeating the same things you've been saying about CNN like, ‘well, it used to be an advocacy network and now we want to make it, sort of this, down this middle, we want to bring in more Republicans, we want both sides.’ These are the types of things [Warner Bros. Discovery CEO] David Zaslav has talked about from CNN, but I don't know if that’s enough of a vision to get everyone there on board with the mission.”
One of those who was not onboard with that vision was Stelter, which is why he was sacked by Licht and was now appearing on CNBC. He explained that “A lot of us when we were at CNN in the Trump years felt we were advocating for the truth, advocating for reality. Others felt that was left-leaning.”
Others felt that way because it was and Stelter was one of the biggest voices for that activist approach. Unwittingly confirming his critics correct, Stelter argued that it is almost impossible for CNN to follow a “just the facts” sort of journalism, "I think it is right to have this desire to have a much more calm, less controversial political environment that CNN can then cover, but we don't live in that world. In fact, if anything it’s only going to get more chaotic with Donald Trump as the leading contender for the GOP nomination."
Stelter followed up by claiming that CNN cannot be “all things to all people” because that means “you’re not anything to anybody and that’s the CNN challenge, it always has been, for 40 years, to just try to be the plain vanilla news, well, in an environment where people don't just want plain, vanilla news.”
While it was nice of Stelter to admit that when forced to choose between its hysterically anti-Trump audience and “vanilla news,” CNN chose the former, Sherman would later bring in some comedy.
He argued that “there needs to be more of a vision than just ‘you got to take down the breaking news, we got to turn down the knob here.’”
Admitting that CNN+ has “sort of half-baked,” it represented “a north star for CNN” that could possibly have worked if Licht had just given it more time:
It was something where they said the linear world is hemorrhaging millions of subscribers every year, more and more people cancel cable, so let's make this new thing and, yeah, the ratings are going to be lower, but we can tell investors, we can tell our employees “look we're building a new subscription business, it’ll take time, but that’s where we’re going.” When they killed that off, there was no there there anymore.
More like a black hole. If people weren’t watching CNN with their basic cable package, why would they pay for it by itself? Especially when people like Stelter can’t tell the difference between truth and their own spin.
This segment was sponsored by The Farmer’s Dog.
Here is a transcript for the June 7 show:
CNBC The Exchange
6/7/2023
1:05 PM ET
ALEX SHERMAN: The question now is if you’re going to find a new leader, do you task that new leader with a new vision for CNN? Or do you just keep, kind of, repeating the same things you've been saying about CNN like, “well, it used to be an advocacy network and now we want to make it, sort of this, down this middle, we want to bring in more Republicans, we want both sides.”
These are the types of things David Zaslav has talked about from CNN, but I don't know if that’s enough of a vision to get everyone there on board with the mission.
BRIAN STELTER: A lot of us when we were at CNN in the Trump years felt we were advocating for the truth, advocating for reality. Others felt that was left-leaning, but the point is CNN was evolving because of the political environment and I don’t think there’s a way to turn—
KELLY EVANS: You mean it was evolving anyhow before Chris Licht and—interesting.
STELTER: Before Licht was arriving, yes, and, you know, I think it is right to have this desire to have a much more calm, less controversial political environment that CNN can then cover, but we don't live in that world. In fact, if anything it’s only going to get more chaotic with Donald Trump as the leading contender for the GOP nomination.
I had an anchor today say to me, you know, if you try to be all things to all people, you’re not anything to anybody and that’s the CNN challenge, it always has been, for 40 years, to just try to be the plain vanilla news, well, in an environment where people don't just want plain, vanilla news.
…
SHERMAN: But there needs to be more of a vision than just “you got to take down the breaking news, we got to turn down the knob here” Part of, again, one of the big things he did when first stepped in the role was kill of CNN+ and that was, for better or worse, and you can certainly make an argument that, that was sort of a half-baked product and shouldn't have been launched when had and maybe was a product of the merger happening and trying to rush it out before Discovery took over, but at least it was a north star for CNN. It was something where they said the linear world is hemorrhaging millions of subscribers every year, more and more people cancel cable, so let's make this new thing and, yeah, the ratings are going to be lower, but we can tell investors, we can tell our employees “look we're building a new subscription business, it’ll take time, but that’s where we’re going.” When they killed that off, there was no there there anymore.
