International- Christ Licht stepped down Wednesday after a one-year tenure as chairman and CEO of CNN.
- CNN reporter Oliver Darcy described Licht's tenure as "stained by a series of severe missteps."
CNN posted a brutal story on the shock departure of its CEO, Chris Licht.
In a story published Wednesday, CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy described Licht's one-year tenure as "stained by a series of severe missteps." He said the chairman and CEO alienated employees at all levels of the organization and effectively "lost the room."
"Licht's departure capped a tumultuous year for CNN, marked by layoffs, shrinking profits, historically low ratings, the firing of two anchors, and rock-bottom employee morale," Darcy wrote. "The chaos that defined the last year also followed several other gut punches to the organization, including the ouster of previous leader, Jeff Zucker, and shuttering of nascent streaming service CNN+."
Licht stepped down Wednesday, just one week after The Atlantic published a scathing 15,000-word profile that described him as self-obsessed and lacking vision.
Darcy said many newsroom employees were initially excited to work with Licht last year, given his success in morning news and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
But he "quickly squandered much of that goodwill through a series of blunders, many of his own making," Darcy wrote.
Some examples that Darcy gave included:
- The firing of Brian Stelter, formerly the network's chief media correspondent and anchor of "Reliable Sources."
- Licht's highly criticized handling of a town hall with former President Donald Trump.
- CNN announcing layoffs, after Licht had previously told employees that there would be no major layoffs.
Darcy himself had tangled with Licht. After the May town hall, Darcy wrote that it was "hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening."
Puck's Dylan Byers reported that Licht then called Darcy into a meeting in which he and other higher-ups told Darcy "that his coverage had been too emotional and repeatedly stressed the importance of remaining dispassionate when covering the news, be it CNN or any other media organization." Darcy pushed back, according to Byers. Still, Byers reported that two sources who saw Darcy after the meeting described him as "visibly shaken."
Ultimately, The Atlantic profile did Licht in. His top two communications leaders, Kris Coratti Kelly and Matt Dornic, have also departed, Darcy reported.
"In the final days, Licht seemed to understand that he had alienated staffers," Darcy wrote. "But it was all too late."
Read Darcy's full story.