Dear Mr. David Zaslav:
I was excited when you took over as the combined Discovery and Warner Media Networks CEO. I anticipated that your leadership would lead to CNN regaining its status as the “most trusted name in news.”
Sadly, just over a year later, CNN remains the number two liberal network and the third overall cable news network. A few people have been let go, but it amounts to rearranging the deck chairs. CNN’s course remains ill-fated. If anything, after the so-called “Town Hall” with former President Trump, it’s more confusing than ever.
It’s time to clean house at CNN. I’m offering myself as a candidate to help you fix the network. It must be embarrassing to own the number two liberal network and number three cable news network. Based on what you’ve said in interviews, we agree on what will make CNN relevant.
In numerous interviews, you’ve said that CNN should be a news network. If by news network, you mean one that employs journalistic standards from an era before the 1990s, when viewers had no idea which party or candidate the people bringing them the news supported, we agree.
If you mean a network that presents the news factually without regard to which party is helped or hurt by the report, rather than delivering propaganda that one side will agree with all the time and the other will disagree with all the time, we agree.
I thought Chris Licht was hired as CEO to turn CNN into that kind of network. Turning an organization as big as CNN around takes time, so your patience is understood. You show the hallmarks of a great leader.
But the clock on Mr. Licht ran out on Wednesday, May 10th, the date of the so-called “Town Hall” with Trump. What viewers saw wasn’t a town hall. It was a debate with CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins.
The only prep Collins had done was memorizing the “fact checker’s” points so she would know when to scream: “liar-liar, pants on fire.” She covered no new ground and didn’t get Trump to say anything he hadn’t already said (including the statements CNN panels later claimed special prosecutors would use). It was a missed opportunity.
Yet, CNN drew 3.3 million viewers that night. The last time CNN drew over 3 million viewers was for a Biden Town Hall in February 2021. On election night 2022, CNN drew 2.4 million viewers (MSNBC had 4.1 million, and Fox News led with 7.2 million viewers).
Worse than the “Town Hall” was the analysis afterward. Led by CNN anchors Anderson Cooper and Jake Trapper, along with other CNN contributors, dripped with contempt and hatred for Trump.
They spent the rest of the night and the next day telling viewers how awful Trump was and how embarrassed the network should be for giving the former President of the United States, and clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, airtime. Cooper sincerely stated he “wouldn’t blame you for never watching this network again“.
These aren’t journalists. They are propaganda agents for the Democratic National Committee. It’s time to fire all of them, along with Mr. Licht, who has proven he cannot control his network’s direction and content. They should find work at the DNC or MSNBC but aren’t helping CNN get ratings. Mr. Zaslav, you could read your memos on CNN and get better ratings than on a typical night.
What was the point of inviting Trump on? The network got nothing new out of him. It sent a message to its current audience that CNN isn’t trustworthy. It communicated to Trump fans that CNN is as bad as they thought, and the anchors made it clear that they run the place. Even Fox News wouldn’t put up with its biggest star, Tucker Carlson, acting bigger than the network.
I’m not suggesting Donald Trump be allowed to lie with impunity on CNN, but Joe Biden doesn’t get to either. CNN also can’t lie about Trump in the name of taking him down. The ends don’t justify the means.
CNN has never corrected the record for three years of breathtaking “Breaking News” updates about Donald Trump and Russian collusion – none of which was ever true – or Democrats would have impeached him over it.
CNN has yet to confront Biden with the coverup of Hunter’s laptop story and, more importantly, why during the first Presidential Debate in 2020, Joe Biden told voters that 51 former intelligence officers had signed a letter proving that the laptop story was Russian dis-information when he knew that his campaign (Antony Blinken) worked with James Clapper and current CIA officials to create it and 26 other intel officers had declined to sign on.
Those are just for starters.
Journalists should be tough but fair, whether questioning Trump and Republicans or Biden and Democrats.
CNN must differentiate itself from Fox News and MSNBC by calling out lies of both sides and not embracing the lies of either side.
If you hire me, I promise you won’t have to be embarrassed over being the number two liberal network (or conservative one). CNN will be the number-one network where people go for the truth about what is happening across the country, Washington, D.C., and the world.
Whether you hire me or not, it’s time for Chris Licht, Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, and the rest of the people whose primary goal is “getting” Trump and electing Democrats to go so you can have the news network you have spoken about often. Until then, CNN is an embarrassment, and Mr. Zaslav, you’re better than that.
Sincerely yours,
Andy Bloom
andy@andybloom.com
Andy Bloom is president of Andy Bloom Communications. He specializes in media training and political communications. He has programmed legendary stations including WIP, WPHT and WYSP/Philadelphia, KLSX, Los Angeles and WCCO Minneapolis. He was Vice President Programming for Emmis International, Greater Media Inc. and Coleman Research. Andy also served as communications director for Rep. Michael R. Turner, R-Ohio. He can be reached by email at andy@andybloom.com or you can follow him on Twitter @AndyBloomCom.
