In the wake of a piece in The Atlantic that painted a brutal portrait of CNN CEO Chris Licht, the network's boss is now trying to reassure employees that he plans to “fight like hell” to win back their trust, The Daily Beast reported.
The Atlantic article told the story of a network in "meltdown" and a CEO who is facing fallout over a town hall that featured former President Donald Trump and the loss of support from staff after he was tasked by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to reinvent CNN as a “centrist” news channel.
According to sources speaking to The Beast, Licht told staffers during an editorial call on Monday morning that he plans to stay on as CNN's CEO, adding that he knows "these past few days have been very hard for this group."
“I fully recognize that this news cycle and my role in it overshadowed the incredible week of reporting that we just had and distracted from the work of every single journalist in this organization. And for that, I am sorry," he reportedly said.
He said that when he read The Atlantic's piece, he realized that “CNN is not about me" and he “should not be in the news unless it’s taking arrows” for the network’s staff since “your work is what should be written about.”
Read the full report over at The Daily Beast.
