CNN’s new CEO Chris Licht has revealed that his network plans to reduce its coverage of President Donald Trump following the launch of his 2024 presidential campaign.
Speaking during a new podcast interview, Licht said CNN will not cover Trump as much as the network did during his White House term and 2016 campaign.
“We have fact-checkers ready to go,” Licht told “On with Kara Swisher.”
“We will put things in perspective.
“We will not let everything he does consume the news cycle, right?
“There are other things that are important.”
Licht claimed that under former CNN boss Jeff Zucker’s direction, the network covered Trump ad nauseam.
Zucker “let every little thing that [Trump] did consume everything, and so you ended up talking about him for eight hours a day,” Licht expalined.
“And we’re not going to do that,” Licht said, noting that Trump raised CNN’s ratings during his presidency.
“We’re going to be very clear and take everything on a case-by-case basis about what level of coverage it should be.”
Trump, Republicans, and critics of corporate media said that CNN took a markedly left-wing turn during Trump’s presidency.
Meanwhile, the network has had consistently worse ratings than Fox News or MSNBC over the past several years.
CNN has seen its ratings fall drastically since Trump left office.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this year shows that some CNN shows were “more left-leaning” than even some shows on MSNBC.
“Our program-level measures reveal, at least based on the guests that appear on the show, popular primetime news shows on CNN—such as Anderson Cooper 360 or CNN Tonight—are more left-leaning than well-known evening shows on MSNBC such as The Rachel Maddow Show or The 11th Hour with Brian Williams,” according to the study.
And it added: “While news shows across all time blocks have polarized since 2017, we find that this pattern is the most pronounced among primetime shows, with Fox News steadily becoming more conservative and MSNBC and CNN sharply becoming more liberal during the Trump presidency.”
On Tuesday night, Trump announced a third run for president at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
CNN broadcast the first 20 minutes of his speech before cutting away.
Licht, who has been conducting a business review of CNN for the past six months, said in a memo late last month that sweeping changes will be made in the near future—including layoffs.
He made reference to a looming worldwide economic downturn.
“All this together will mean noticeable change to this organization,” Licht said in a memo, CNN reported.
“That, by definition, is unsettling.
“These changes will not be easy because they will affect people, budgets, and projects.”
