After relentless attacks from Donald Trump and the Republican president’s allies, a series of journalistic catastrophes and in the shadow of a possible merger, CNN's chief executive officer, Jeff Zucker, is feeling the heat, according to Vanity Fair columnist Sarah Ellison.
Ellison claims that the ongoing struggle between Trump and the Cable News Network has damaged both sides as the president’s approval ratings and CNN’s viewership have both fallen in recent months.
The July 18 article, which was replete with unidentified sources, began with an example of the “strange theater of Donald Trump’s battle with the media” by citing an incident regarding an appearance by White House adviser Sebastian Gorka made to discuss the retaking of Mosul from ISIS [the Islamic State of Iran and Syria] on New Day.
“CNN regularly welcomes members of the Donald Trump White House to appear” on the channel's morning program, Ellison stated, and “CNN producers readied the script. Co-anchor Alisyn Camerota handled the interview and spent the first portion of the conversation on the scheduled topic.”
“But when the discussion inevitably turned to Donald Trump, Jr.’s recently reviewed ‘I love it’ e-mail to the Russian attorney, Gorka had his opening to change the topic,” the columnist noted. “He made CNN, and its coverage of the Russia investigation, the story."
“Gorka scoffed at Camerota,” Ellison noted, by “deriding ‘the amount of time you spend in desperation on a topic that has plummeted you to 13th place in viewership ranking across America.’”
The columnist quoted Gorka as saying: “More people watch Nick at Night cartoons than CNN today,” but Camerota fired back by asking: “Why do they do that if he doesn’t think anyone watches us and that we don’t practice good journalism? It makes no sense.”
However, “the tactic nevertheless played very well with its most important audience. ‘Did you see Gorka?’ Trump reportedly asked his advisers. 'So great, I mean really, truly great.'”
“It’s also a tactic that CNN’s own anchors have grown accustomed to,” she continued. “When the light goes on, to me, it’s like hearing the bell sound the beginning of a [boxing] round,” New Day co-host Chris Cuomo asserted.
“When the show starts, it is ding ding ding, who is coming at me, and with what kind of weapon today?" he asked. "Is it a personal insult? Is it questioning our reporting? Is it a false narrative? Is it whataboutism?”
Ellison noted that the clash between Trump and the media often makes “for riveting television and [is] fantastic for ratings” but operates “on multiple levels. It’s more than just theater, and CNN is in the heart of it” since “the president has targeted the network more vocally than even the New York Times and the Washington Post, the outlets that have delivered the most harmful journalistic blows to his administration.”
“Partly, this is because, with CNN, it’s personal,” she noted. “The network’s president, Jeff Zucker, greenlit The Apprentice back when he was running NBC, and the two were friendly before they found themselves as bitter adversaries after the election.”
“He’s gone full war with the media, no doubt about that,” said one anonymous editor with close ties to the White House. “It is full-on full-scale warfare with CNN.”
“The struggle is coming at a time when there are backstage pressures” for the CNN president, Ellison stated. “Zucker’s bosses at Time Warner are now preparing to merge into telecom behemoth AT&T, a deal that requires regulatory approval from the Department of Justice, and a deal Trump has said he doesn’t like.”
In that merger, “CNN may be surprisingly vulnerable,” she noted. “I know the AT&T people. CNN is not why they did this deal,” said one anonymous longtime media consultant in Washington. “They would spin him off in a minute,” this person added, referring to Zucker. “They don’t care about him.”
“Media analysts call the proposed merger a ‘vertical’ deal since it integrates programming and distribution into one shop,” Ellison stated. “Current antitrust law doesn’t give much scrutiny to such deals, provided they do not dampen competition in the market.”
“But the Trump administration may change that equation,” she added. “White House advisers have reportedly talked about CNN’s negative coverage as a possible strike against the deal.”
“Inside CNN, the attacks from Trump are consuming, especially for the anchors who are tasked with inserting skepticism into the panels that pit Trump surrogates against Democratic operatives,” Ellison noted.
“One CNN staffer told me that in the reporting ranks, the war with the White House doesn’t feature in determining what to cover,” Ellison stated, “and that the tension between on-air personalities and Trump surrogates plays out almost entirely on air.”
Cuomo had a different view of the situation. Trump “has politicized truth,” he told Ellison.
