Earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav fired CNN CEO Chris Licht after a disastrous, high-profile feature in The Atlantic questioned his ability to run the network. However, Zaslav hasn’t completely closed the door on working with Licht in the future.
While speaking at the New York Times DealBook Summit, Zaslav called Licht “a good friend” before noting that the former CNN chief could still have a future with the company.
“There are a lot of good days and a lot of tough days. Chris has had a lot of great days,” said Zaslav. “He created Morning Joe. He created CBS This Morning. We had a lot of fun and a lot of battles together. Chris is going to have a lot of great chapters and hopefully some of those with us at Warner Bros. He’s very talented.”
Chris Licht was reportedly handpicked by Zaslav to run CNN after the high-profile exit of former executive Jeff Zucker in 2022. He only lasted until June before a series of decisions left internal staffers openly questioning whether or not the longtime TV executive had a plan for the network, other than continue on Zaslav’s mission to keep the outlet from becoming an “advocacy network”. Zaslav says he remains committed to that vision despite Licht’s failures.
The Warner Bros. Discovery executive said the company continues to attempt to address the “strategic question of, ‘Should news networks be advocacy networks, or should news networks be journalistic organizations?’ And it’s really a strategic choice, nothing good or bad. For CNN, the choice was, this should be — it is — the greatest journalistic organization in the world.”
