News/Commentary

Leftist podcaster says Warner Bros. Discovery CEO needs to ‘get the f**k out of the way’ at CNN

June 10, 2023 | | Print Article

Leftist commentator Kara Swisher, formerly with The New York Times, has some thoughts about how CNN can recover, and from the sounds of it, they involve management backing off and letting employees do whatever the hell they want.

Speaking on her “Pivot” podcast this week, she specifically went after Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Warner Bros. Discovery is CEO’s parent company, and as previously reported, Zaslav’s been trying to transform CNN from a partisan echo chamber into an actual news organization.

Zaslav sought to achieve this by installing Chris Licht as CEO at CNN about a year ago. While Licht did admittedly make the network less partisan, he wound up angering the network’s litany of leftist employees. This, in turn, eventually resulted in him being ousted from his post this past week.

However, although Licht is now out, Zaslav still wants CNN to pursue actual news instead of partisan nonsense. But Swisher appears to disagree with this line of thinking.

Listen:

“I think they’re really good at breaking news. I think they can be news without having to declare constantly their centrist,” Swisher said on her podcast Friday, referencing Zaslav’s desire for CNN to not be so partisan.

“It was very much David Zaslav [pushing that]. Let me say, I think Chris [Licht] was a proxy for him. I’ve had conversations with him that I find vexing around his theories of journalism, which I — I’m sorry to say, I think he’s a very smart programmer, but honestly, it’s like talking to my uncle about journalism,” she added.

Swisher is evidently one of those New York Times’ grade leftists who believes “journalism” means only telling one side of the story — namely the side that makes the left look good and the right look bad.

Concluding her remarks, Swisher called for Zaslav to get out of the way.

“So he needs to, like, let the professionals take over and see if they can make good programming. He needs to get the f–k out of the way. I don’t want David Zaslav to pronounce on journalism. I really don’t,” she said.

It’s not clear what she meant by “professionals.” Are they the same leftist “professionals” who decided to turn CNN into an anti-Trump echo chamber during the Trump administration?

Or perhaps they’re the same “professionals” who’ve smeared black conservatives, who recently ignored the Durham report, and who during the Trump era propped up since-convicted scumbag Michael Avenatti as some type of hero.

Twitter users have some thoughts of their own about Swisher’s remarks.

“Professional Liberals destroyed CNN the first time. Liberalism destroys everything it touches,” one critic tweeted.

“@karaswisher you are a hack not a journalist. CNN is getting back to its roots reporting news not spreading hate like you do,” another added.

See more responses below:

Most leftists want CNN to return to being as grossly partisan as before. Perry Bacon, a columnist for The Washington Post, appears to be a perfect example of this.

“CNN’s Chris Licht showed the problem with anti-woke centrism,” the headline of a piece he wrote last week reads.

Right off the bat, it seems he’s a “woke” zealot who resents actual, non-partisan journalism — versus the opinion commentary he writes.

He even admits it.

“By anti-woke, what I mean is skepticism of progressive causes and ideas, especially on issues of gender, race and sexuality. The term ‘woke’ is vague and imprecise. But I think it does capture the movements toward greater equality such as Black Lives Matter that have gained strength and prominence over the past decade, particularly since the protests after the killing of George Floyd,” he writes.

And so it sounds like he wants CNN (and the news industry writ large) to act more “woke,” meaning less skepticism and criticism of leftist ideas. It appears that in his world, only right-wing ideas deserve to be criticized. There’s no “both sides,” if you will.

“There can and should be open debate about police reform, diversity, covid-19 policies and other issues — both between the two parties and among progressives and other non-Republicans. But when we have a left that is pushing America to finish the work of the 1960s and create a true multicultural democracy and a right that is banning Black intellectual ideas from public schools, it’s a huge mistake for powerful non-Republicans in society to spend so much time bashing the left,” he continues.

“This anti-woke centrism often sounds as though people are auditioning to be today’s version of the “white moderates” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. castigated six decades ago,” he adds.

In other words, because he personally doesn’t like the right’s ideas and policies, it’s important that journalists focus only on attacking the right, and never the left …

Vivek Saxena
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