Chris Licht fired as CNN chief after series of missteps

Chris Licht, CNN’s embattled chief executive, is set to leave the network after a series of controversies, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Licht was handpicked by Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav just over a year ago to run CNN following the departure of his longtime chief, Jeff Zucker.

But Licht’s brief tenure at the helm of CNN was riddled with missteps, culminating in a damning article in The Atlantic magazine last week that characterized the executive as thin-skinned and conflicted.

Weeks ago, CNN hosted a controversial town hall meeting with Donald Trump, who insulted the network’s moderator to applause from an audience packed with supporters of the former president. CNN reporters were outraged, but Licht defended the decision, saying: “America benefited greatly from what we did”.

Licht apologized to CNN staff on Monday morning, telling the staff that he would “fight like hell” to regain their trust.