The shocking, while not surprising, announcement that CNN CEO Chris Licht would leave the company Wednesday morning is the talk of the news media world. 1210 WPHT morning man Nick Kayal believes Licht’s departure signals a death knell for CNN.
“It confirms a lot of things for me, personally. I think CNN is done. I think they are dead. They are never getting out of third place, or last place, if that’s how you want to look at it,” the Kayal and Company host said Wednesday morning.
“Looking up at MSNBC, who does their type of news coverage at a much more consumed level than CNN, and certainly looking up at Fox News, the leader in cable news…he makes it a year and a month and Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, says ‘You know what? We’ve seen enough’.”
Kayal said the situation at CNN was untenable with some employees still being loyal to former CEO Jeff Zucker, but said one situation in particular led to Licht’s downfall.
“There always seems to be some drama there,” said Kayal. “I started thinking about this last night, and now with his departure, here’s the thing: if you’re the boss — especially at these networks — you should not be part of the talking head show fodder…I’ve always felt like if you were one of these guys, and I can only do it from a talk radio — sports or news — perspective, nobody wants to know who you are. By and large, if you are about creating the brand, the content, the image, the personas, you do that behind the scenes and you really do that behind the scenes and don’t be someone your opposing rivals can talk about.”
Kayal argued that Licht stepped into a “crummy” situation, and was likely destined to fail.
