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      G.O.P. in Talks With Networks About Debates, and Even CNN Is Included

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      Conversations between R.N.C. officials and television executives signal that the contours of the Republican nominating contest are shaping up.Despite a field of candidates who regularly bash the news media and a continuing tussle with the Commission on Presidential Debates, Republican leaders sat down last week with television executives in New York and posed a question:Do you want to host a debate?In an intriguing show of détente, the Republican National Committee has asked several major TV networks — including CNN, a regular Republican boogeyman — to consider sponsoring debates, an early sign that the party is making plans for a contested presidential primary.The debates would probably begin this summer, and Republicans are casting a wide net: Party officials are also in talks with executives from ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News, along with more-niche networks like Newsmax and NewsNation, according to several people who requested anonymity to describe discussions intended to be private. Political debates are highly prized in the TV news industry and the networks are expected to present proposals next month.“Our goal is to have incredibly successful debates that allow Republican primary voters to see, without any kind of bias, a full picture of what these candidates stand for,” David Bossie, the chairman of the party’s presidential debates committee, said in an interview.The conversations, led by Mr. Bossie and Ronna McDaniel, the R.N.C. chairwoman, have moved forward even as the Republicans’ slate of presidential contenders remains uncertain. They underscore a delicate balancing act for Republican leaders, who are reviewing media and messaging strategy after a poor showing in last year’s midterm races.Several Republican candidates in 2022 who spoke only with conservative outlets and podcasters were defeated in November — losses that raised questions about the power of partisan media to reach the swing voters who often determine the outcome of tight races.Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is considered a likely presidential candidate.Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesBut other leading Republicans found success in ignoring the mainstream press. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is viewed as a likely 2024 presidential contender, easily won re-election without submitting to interviews with nonpartisan outlets or local editorial pages. Former President Donald J. Trump, the only Republican who has declared his intention to run in 2024, continues to assail journalists.Gov. Ron DeSantis and His AdministrationReshaping Florida: Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has turned the swing state into a right-wing laboratory by leaning into cultural battles.2024 Speculation: Mr. DeSantis opened his second term as Florida’s governor with a speech that subtly signaled his long-rumored ambitions for the White House.Avoiding the Press: The governor easily won re-election despite little engagement with the mainstream media, but his strategy would face a big test if he pursued a presidential bid.Latino Evangelicals: The governor has courted Hispanic evangelical Christians assiduously as his national profile has risen. They could be a decisive constituency in a possible showdown with former President Donald J. Trump in 2024.In the interview, Mr. Bossie acknowledged that Republicans remained “incredibly skeptical that our presidential candidates can get a fair shake from what we consider the biased mainstream media.” But he said Republican leaders could still engage with national media outlets that conservative stars routinely criticize.“There are plenty of Republicans who consume their news just from the major networks,” Mr. Bossie said. “That’s why we have a broader outreach.”Mr. Bossie said he would “demand fair and unbiased moderators and questioners,” adding: “We are fighting for that fairness. Our goal is to have a debate without anybody even remembering who a moderator is, or if there was a moderator.”The R.N.C. is unlikely to turn to MSNBC to sponsor a primary debate, partly because the network’s left-leaning audience has little overlap with the primary electorate, according to a person with knowledge of the party’s plans. But the early talks have included NBC properties like CNBC, Telemundo and the NBC broadcast network.There is precedent for political parties bypassing specific networks. In 2019, Democratic officials refused to grant one of their primary debates to Fox News.“We cast a broad net to engage with interested and qualified organizations, though not every entity who submits a proposal will receive a debate,” Ms. McDaniel said in a statement.Aired to mass audiences by broadcast and cable networks, debates are a tradition that often produce pivotal moments in campaigns. For long-shot candidates, they can be hugely beneficial (Mr. Trump’s fiery exchange in 2015 with Megyn Kelly, a Fox News anchor at the time) or hugely destructive (Senator Elizabeth Warren’s dismantling of former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2020, effectively ending his presidential candidacy onstage).From left, Fox hosts Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier hosting a Republican presidential debate in 2015.Doug Mills/The New York TimesMichael R. Bloomberg, left, and Elizabeth Warren during the Democratic debate in 2020.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesNetworks typically foot the significant costs for holding a debate, including paying for the venue rental and production crew; in return, TV executives secure big ratings and big revenue. Primary debates in 2015 and 2019 broke viewership records. In the 2016 race, when both parties’ nominations were openly contested, CNN hosted more than a dozen primary debates and candidate forums; the network often made up to $2 million in profit from each event, according to a person with knowledge of internal financial figures.The electoral matchups also place news networks at the heart of the national conversation and highlight their civic role. Cable channels often choreograph days of Super Bowl-like coverage around a primary debate, complete with onscreen clocks counting down to the main event.Recently, however, debates have faced an uncertain future.The Republican Party last year formally boycotted the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonpartisan group that has sponsored every general election debate since 1988, deeming it “biased.” The R.N.C. has not backed away from that stance. (Primary debates are organized directly between political parties and media organizations, without the participation of the independent commission.) In the 2022 midterm elections, some high-profile Republican and Democratic candidates declined to appear on a debate stage with their opponents.Even if Republican officials finalized plans for a primary debate with a mainstream network, it is not clear if candidates who attack the news media, like Mr. Trump or Mr. DeSantis, would agree to participate.In 2020, Mr. Trump pulled out of the second of three scheduled general-election debates after the commission decided to hold the debate virtually because of concerns about the coronavirus; the event was canceled.In 2016, Mr. Trump withdrew from a Fox News debate on the eve of the Iowa caucuses after the network rejected his request that Ms. Kelly be removed as a moderator. Two months later, when Mr. Trump announced he would skip another Fox News debate in Utah, the network canceled the event altogether. More

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      Layoffs, low ratings and a lurch closer to the right: is CNN in crisis?

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      Layoffs, low ratings and a lurch closer to the right: is CNN in crisis?New management outlines a course to cut costs and return to political middle ground, but there may be no easy fix in sight At some time in the next couple weeks CNN will begin to lay off staff, part of a slimming down strategy that is affecting the whole media sector but also a move that has shocked many at one of the household names in US news which now seems to be in crisis as it adjusts to new owners keen to slash costs.The original cable news network – and still a well-known name across the globe – has been shedding viewers, coming in last in ratings of US cable news networks during the recent midterm elections.The changes at CNN look politically motivated. That should concern us all | Robert ReichRead moreAt the same time, the cost-cutting new corporate management under the umbrella of Warner Bros Discovery has also indicated it wants to reel in a perceived left-leaning political bias in CNN’s coverage. Welcome to the painful cable news reset of late 2022, a TV drama freighted with questions about democracy, bias and the role of commercial journalism in what is supposed to a post-Donald Trump realignment of values – a premise that may itself be premature given the former US president is running for the White House again.Over the past year, incoming management at CNN outlined a course to return to a political middle ground and to the spirit of founder Ted Turner, who sought to “make news the star”. The course would be steered by CNN’s chairman and CEO, Chris Licht, and supported by Warner’s chief executive, David Zaslav, and libertarian cable king and shareholder John Malone.“I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing,” Malone said last year. That seemed to conform to what public polls indicate many viewers claim to want – unbiased news. But few can agree on what that looks like or if it exists. Nor is it clear they would tune in if it did.Add to that a splintering of audiences that shows no signs of abating, staffing dramas that saw some of CNN’s best known talking heads – Chris Cuomo, Brian Stelter, Jake Tapper – fired, dropped or shuffled, reduced cable carrier income and advertising revenue, $47.5bn in Time Warner-Discovery merger debt to help service, and a stock price that’s halved since April. CNN and Licht are now in an unenviable position.“I hate to say it but when I look ahead, I see problems without end,” one CNN executive told the FT last week.Licht, a former late night showrunner for Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, looked to shore up confidence in his vision at an all-hands meeting with staff last week.“I own the vision for this place,” he said, according to Insider. Under questioning from employees, Licht rejected the view that he is under guidance of CNN’s corporate parent. “I did not take this job to take dictation from anybody,” he said.But in an interview with the FT, Licht appeared to push back on that previously enunciated vision of seeking a middle ground. “One of the biggest misconceptions about my vision is that I want to be vanilla, that I want to be centrist. That is bullshit,” he said. “You have to be compelling. You have to have edge. In many cases you take a side.”New ‘objective’ CNN appears to be making itself objectively rightwingRead moreIt’s a debate that courses through newsrooms in search of audiences that may no longer exist in the way they once did. In this absence are arguments about where they would stand if indeed they did. “There is a mighty fine line between avoiding partisan hype, and journalism as difference-splitting, centrist triangulation,” noted Jon Allsop in the Columbia Journalism Review over the summer.Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University, believes Licht’s vision of serving a hypothetical news-consuming family – “everyone’s network” – is not easy to achieve.“Chris Licht believes that CNN devoted too much time to Trump coverage and politics, and in looking for short-term ratings CNN became over-dependent, like a sugar-high, on Trump, politics generally and punditry. A lot of people would agree with that.”But the reality may be that it’s hard for any media organization to turn away from an era of political discord because it has been so good for ratings and profits. Also, in the short-term at least, the discord does not appear to be going anywhere.Projections by S&P Global Market Intelligence in August forecast that CNN’s profitability is on a pace to decline to $956m this year. That is still a hefty sum but it marks the first time it has fallen below a billion since Trump was elected.An easy fix might be to ramp up opinionated content again but that is not the vision that Licht has enunciated. “He thinks of CNN as a powerful news brand and wants to protect it,” Rosen believes.Sexy khakis and giant graphics: how US TV pundits spent election nightRead moreBut what could be broken is an old view of news and particularly political coverage. Standing between two parties, similar in structure but standing for different ideologies, was only possible when both had similar aims – acquiring power on agreed terms of play. With the rise of Trump and the embrace by large swathes of the Republican party of election denialism, that model no longer works.“The picture doesn’t fit the world if you have a candidate running against the system and trying to blow up what the other party is doing as a normal party. The press can try to say we’re in the middle between a war of extremes, but it isn’t that and it’s produced a crisis for consensus practice,” Rosen said.And that’s what Licht, CNN and others in the media may now be facing. “The press has to decide how to do journalism in the presence of a threat to the democracy that permits the journalism we do,” Rosen said. TopicsCNNTV newsUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Sexy khakis and giant graphics: how US TV pundits spent election night

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      Sexy khakis and giant graphics: how US TV pundits spent election nightThe midterms brought less drama than expected, but anchors had to fill the airwaves with something

      US midterm election results 2022: live
      US midterm elections 2022 – latest live news updates
      Before the first polls closed in Virginia and Georgia, CNN’s John King stood in front of his infamous magic board to plead with viewers to avoid unconfirmed news: “Stay off social media, folks.”Jake Tapper, who took over Wolf Blitzer’s usual duties after a last-minute switch up, let out an uneasy laugh. Then King made a case for CNN’s frantic coverage of 2022’s midterm season: “If you’re trying to figure out ‘are there really issues with voting’, trust your local officials and trust us here,” he said. It was a line that conservative pundits would jump on as fear-mongering. (“CNN in Panic mode,” Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson tweeted.)‘No Republican blowout’: our panel reacts to the initial US midterm results | PanelRead moreMoments later, Tapper stood in front of a gigantic countdown screen, the much-less-fun cousin of Times Square’s New Year’s Eve clock. A bold number 1 blazed across the screen in red. It represented the only seat Republicans needed to pick up to win back power in the Senate. The screaming, Super Bowl-esque graphic reminded us that cable news coverage of midterm results was back in all its frenetic excess.Such breathless, wall-to-wall coverage is enough to give anyone election stress. The New York Times suggested to its readers “evidence-based strategies that can help you cope” with the effects of doom-scrolling. It was helpful, if a bit unsettling, advice.“Breathe like a baby,” said one step. “Focus on expanding your belly when you breathe, which can send more oxygen to the brain.” Another tip skewed more Wim Hof: “Plunge your face into a bowl with ice water for 10 to 30 seconds.”Readers who came up for air would be rewarded with MSNBC’s “Kornacki Cam”, a loop that played in the corner of TV screens during commercials. It showed live, behind-the-scenes shots of the fan-favorite national reporter Steve Kornacki, only partially aware that he was being filmed. Kornacki took water breaks, had one-way conversations with his interactive district map, and gave viewers the perfect shot of his geek-chic brown khakis. Those pants, his beloved trademark, earned him a spot on People’s Sexiest Men list in 2020.They remained a rare highlight of our fractured democratic process. “Happy Steve Kornacki day for those who celebrate,” read one tweet. As the reporter rifled through his notes on screen, another fan wrote, “Steve Kornacki finding his documents during this stressful race is extremely relatable.”Kornacki’s data-driven approach represented to some a bastion of stability on otherwise crazed election nights. But head over to the rightwing outlet Newsmax, and things were a little more unpredictable: especially when Donald Trump took a moment to call in.The former president teased a “big announcement” he plans to make at Mar-a-Lago on 15 November. This appears to be a thinly veiled promise of a 2024 election run. But why wait a week? Trump said he didn’t want to “take away” from the significance of election night – specifically, JD Vance’s Ohio Senate race – but he seemed to be doing just that by opening his mouth.On Fox News, Tucker Carlson repeated conservative concerns about voter fraud and election integrity. “We’re not really serious about democracy if we’re using electronic voting machines,” he said.Cable news producers have to fill their seven-hour-long slots with something, even if it’s a whole lot of nothing. At about 9pm on Tuesday, as some polls were closing but results were not yet in, Savannah Guthrie and Lester Holt tried to stay cheery as they talked through a list of tight gubernatorial races. “Stop me if you’ve heard this before: too early to call,” Guthrie said.Pundits also found humor in the triumph of Maxwell Frost, the night’s youngest winner and the first Gen Z member of Congress. Frost, who will represent Florida, is 25 years old. “That means he was born in 1997,” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said as her fellow anchors laughed in disbelief. “I literally have liquor older than him.”When the Republican surge some had predicted failed to materialize, MSNBC hosts started patting each other on the back. “I looked at you weird earlier when you said Joe Biden was going to be one of the most successful presidents ever as measured by the midterm performance of his party,” Rachel Maddow said to her colleague Lawrence O’Donnell. “I owe you not an apology, but a tepid climb-back.”On Fox News, Karl Rove was wistfully talking about the hinterlands of Georgia with votes still to report, but there was a clear sense that things weren’t quite going to plan any more.TopicsUS politicsUS televisionCNNFox NewsMSNBCThe news on TVTV newsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      TV Prepares for a Chaotic Midterm Night

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      Gearing up to report this year’s midterm election results, American television networks are facing an uncomfortable question: How many viewers will believe them?Amid rampant distrust in the news media and a rash of candidates who have telegraphed that they may claim election fraud if they lose, news anchors and executives are seeking new ways to tackle the attacks on the democratic process that have infected politics since the last election night broadcast in 2020.“For entrepreneurs of chaos, making untrue claims about the election system is a route to greater glory,” said John Dickerson, the chief political analyst at CBS News, who will co-anchor the network’s coverage on Nov. 8. “Elections and the American experiment exist basically on faith in the system, and if people don’t have any faith in the system, they may decide to take things into their own hands.”CBS has been televising elections since 1948. But this is the first year that the network has felt obligated to install a dedicated “Democracy Desk” as a cornerstone of its live coverage. Seated a few feet from the co-anchors in the network’s Times Square studio, election law experts and correspondents will report on fraud allegations and threats of violence at the polls.“It’s not traditional,” said Mary Hager, CBS’s executive editor of politics, who has covered election nights for three decades. “But I’m not sure we’ll ever have traditional again.”The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsElection Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.Bracing for a Red Wave: Republicans were already favored to flip the House. Now they are looking to run up the score by vying for seats in deep-blue states.Pennsylvania Senate Race: The debate performance by Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who is still recovering from a stroke, has thrust questions of health to the center of the pivotal race and raised Democratic anxieties.G.O.P. Inflation Plans: Republicans are riding a wave of anger over inflation as they seek to recapture Congress, but few economists expect their proposals to bring down rising prices.Polling Analysis: If these poll results keep up, everything from a Democratic hold in the Senate and a narrow House majority to a total G.O.P. rout becomes imaginable, writes Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst.Across the industry, networks have deployed dozens of reporters to state capitals around the country, where journalists have spent weeks cultivating relationships with local election officials and learning the minutiae of ballot counting procedures.Still, an election night that ends without a clear indication of which party will control the House and Senate — a likely possibility, given the dozens of tight races — could present an extended period of uncertainty, allowing rumors and disinformation to run rampant. And Americans’ trust in the national news media has rarely been lower, with barely one-third of adults in a recent Gallup poll expressing confidence in it.“I can’t control what politicians are going to say, if they choose to call an election result into question,” said David Chalian, CNN’s political director. “You’ve got to be clear, when it’s a partial picture, that nothing about that is untoward.”Two years ago, TV networks prepared for pandemic-related ballot headaches and speculation that President Donald J. Trump might resist conceding defeat.But 2022 has presented novel challenges. Allies of Mr. Trump — who claimed two years ago, without evidence, that “frankly, we did win this election” — continue to sow doubts about the integrity of the vote-counting process. Republican candidates in some key races still refuse to accept that Mr. Trump lost.Even as Americans consume information from an increasingly kaleidoscopic set of news sources — social media, hyperpartisan blogs, streaming services and family Facebook posts — the big TV networks still play a major role in setting the narrative of an election night, for better and worse.In 2020, Fox News’s early Arizona call signaled that Joseph R. Biden Jr. might emerge victorious (and left Mr. Trump enraged). In 2018, TV had a more ignominious evening: After a series of deflating early defeats for Democrats, some anchors predicted that a “blue wave” had fizzled and that Republicans would retain control of the House. It was Fox News again, working off a proprietary data model, that made the correct call that Democrats would take the chamber.Fox News made the early call that Joseph R. Biden had won in Arizona in 2020.Fox NewsMarc Burstein, the executive in charge of ABC News’s election night coverage, said his team “will be very clear to explain that there could be red or blue mirages. We’re going to be patient.” Carrie Budoff Brown, who runs “Meet the Press” on NBC, said it was “everybody’s responsibility” to prepare audiences for an extended wait.Executives are optimistic that Americans will tune in — and stick around. Despite steep drops this year in viewership of CNN and MSNBC, the Big Three broadcast networks are planning to pre-empt their entire prime-time lineups for political coverage on Nov. 8.ABC, CBS and NBC will kick off their traditional election night coverage at 8 p.m. Eastern time and continue into the wee hours. In the past, those networks often shied away from midterm nights, shoehorning in an hour of coverage between police procedurals and the local news. Executives reasoned that, without a presidential race, audiences were less engaged. That changed in 2018 at the height of the Trump presidency, when ABC, CBS and NBC each devoted three prime-time hours to covering the midterms.On cable, the anchors are preparing for the usual marathon. “This is our Super Bowl,” said Bret Baier, the chief political anchor at Fox News.Fox News’s decision desk will again be run by Arnon Mishkin, the outside consultant who spearheaded its controversial Arizona call in 2020. Although Fox’s projection was eventually proved correct, it took several days for other news outlets to concur. Mr. Trump turned his wrath on the network in retaliation, and Fox News eventually fired a pair of top executives who were involved in the decision to announce the call so early.“What we want to be, always, is right — and first is really nice — but right is what we want to be,” said Mr. Baier of Fox. “In the wake of 2020, we’re going to be looking at numbers very closely, and there may be times when we wait for more raw vote total than we have in the past.”“It’ll be a lot smoother than that moment,” he added, referring to when he and his fellow co-anchors were visibly caught by surprise as their colleagues projected a victory for Mr. Biden in Arizona. Fox officials later ascribed the confusion to poor communication among producers.“I think,” Mr. Baier said, “we all learned a lot from that experience.” More

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      Trump Files a Defamation Suit Against CNN

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      The former president has a history of threatening, and occasionally filing, lawsuits against media organizations whose coverage he deems unfair.Former President Donald J. Trump sued CNN on Monday, claiming that the network defamed him and demanding $475 million in damages.Over the course of his business and political career, Mr. Trump has frequently threatened to sue media organizations over news coverage that he deems unfair or disrespectful. Although he rarely followed through, his attacks on the media became a staple of his political messaging and have often been cited in fund-raising entreaties in the run-up to this year’s midterm elections.In 2020, his re-election campaign sued The New York Times and The Washington Post over opinion articles that linked Mr. Trump to Russian interference in American elections. His suit against The Times was dismissed; the suit involving The Post is pending.Mr. Trump’s complaint against CNN was filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The lawsuit alleges a “campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander” that, Mr. Trump asserts, has recently escalated “as CNN fears the plaintiff will run for president in 2024.”The 29-page suit cites numerous times when CNN hosts and guests criticized Mr. Trump over his policies and his questioning of the 2020 presidential election result. It also laments that some guests have invoked Adolf Hitler and the history of Nazi Germany in criticizing Mr. Trump’s behavior. Among the on-air guests cited as having defamed Mr. Trump is the singer Linda Ronstadt.A CNN spokesman declined to comment.A footnote in the lawsuit shows that Mr. Trump’s representatives contacted CNN in July to give notice of prospective litigation and request that the network stop referring to Mr. Trump’s comments about the 2020 election as “lies.” According to the suit, CNN declined Mr. Trump’s request and replied, “You have not identified a single false or defamatory statement in your letter.”In 2019, Mr. Trump threatened CNN with a lawsuit over “unethical and unlawful attacks.” CNN called that threat “a desperate P.R. stunt.” A suit never materialized.In Monday’s suit, Mr. Trump’s lawyers justified their demand for $475 million in damages in part by alleging that CNN’s coverage has caused the former president to suffer “embarrassment, pain, humiliation and mental anguish.” More

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      Correspondent abruptly leaves CNN after calling Trump a ‘demagogue’

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      Correspondent abruptly leaves CNN after calling Trump a ‘demagogue’ John Harwood is out as the company’s new head signals shift away from liberal-leaning political coverage A White House correspondent for CNN – whose new leader wants the channel to adopt what he considers a more politically neutral voice to its coverage – has departed the network after calling Donald Trump “a dishonest demagogue” on the air.John Harwood announced his exit from CNN on his Twitter account Friday, a day after he spoke favorably of a nationally televised speech by Joe Biden in which the president said that Republican forces loyal to his Oval Office predecessor, Trump, imperiled American democracy.“The core point [Biden] made in that political speech about a threat to democracy is true,” Harwood said on CNN after the address, which was in primetime. “Now that is something that is not easy for us as journalists to say.”“We’re brought up to believe there’s two different political parties with different points of view, and we don’t take sides in honest disagreements between them. But that’s not what we are talking about. These are honest disagreements. The Republican party right now is led by a dishonest demagogue.”By midday Friday, the 65-year-old Harwood tweeted that he was out at CNN.personal news:today’s my last day at CNNproud of the workthanks to my colleaguesi’ve been lucky to serve the best in American media – St. Petersburg Times, WSJ, NYT, the NBC family, CNNlook forward to figuring out what’s next— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) September 2, 2022
      “Personal news: Today’s my last day at CNN,” said Harwood, who added that he has been “lucky” to serve other prominent American media outlets like the St Petersburg Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and NBC. “Proud of the work. Thanks to my colleagues.“Look forward to figuring out what’s next.”CNN didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Harwood’s departure was motivated by his remarks supporting Biden’s speech and criticizing Trump. Network officials instead issued a statement saying, “We appreciate John’s work covering the White House, and we wish him all the best.”Harwood had two years still left on his contract at CNN when he announced his exit, veteran media reporter Dylan Byers said later Friday.According to the Hollywood Reporter, which cited an anonymous source with insight into the situation, Harwood learned “last month” that he was out at the channel.New leadership took over at CNN in April, having been appointed by its owners, Warner Brothers Discovery. CNN chief Chris Licht – who inherited his post after Jeff Zucker’s departure in February – has been open about wanting to tone down its shows’ opinions and return to an older school, straighter and in his interpretation less overtly liberal style of reporting.Harwood’s exit comes after the 21 August departure of Brian Stelter, host of CNN’s media affairs show, Reliable Sources, which was canceled after 30 years on the airwaves.Stelter was doggedly criticized by conservative viewers over his coverage of the Trump administration, which – among many other things – tried to sow doubt about the validity of the results in the 2020 election that he lost to Biden.Stelter, on his last show, also invoked the word “demagogue” as he verbally rebuked CNN’s new brass.“It is not partisan to stand up to demagogues,” said Stelter, who also reportedly had multiple years left on his CNN contract at the time of his departure. “It’s required – it’s patriotic.”Harwood joined CNN in January 2020, about a year before Trump supporters mounted a deadly attack on the US Capitol in a desperate attempt to prevent the congressional certification of the former president’s electoral defeat to Biden.Before that, he was the chief Washington DC correspondent for CNBC, where in 2019 he drew significant attention for another remark that was critical of Trump and his Republican supporters.Harwood at that time had said that Trump and the Republicans who buoyed him to the Oval Office in 2016 were “fundamentally broken”, making them particularly challenging to cover for journalists who operated in good faith.TopicsCNNTelevision industryTV newsUS politicsReuse this content More

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      The changes at CNN look politically motivated. That should concern us all | Robert Reich

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      The changes at CNN look politically motivated. That should concern us allRobert ReichBrian Stelter’s very popular and commerically successful show was axed. The reason? Follow the money For several years, Brian Stelter’s Sunday show on CNN, Reliable Sources, has been a reliable source of intelligent criticism of Fox News, rightwing media in general, Trumpism, and the increasingly authoritarian lurch of the Republican party.Last week, CNN abruptly canceled the show and effectively fired Stelter and his staff.Why? The show was commercially successful. Its ratings have suffered somewhat lately but it was doing better than several of CNN’s primetime shows.It was cancelled by Chris Licht, CNN’s new chairman and CEO, who reportedly was not a fan of Stelter’s opinionated style.But there appears to be more to it than Stelter’s style. Licht has told CNN staff they should stop referring to Donald Trump’s “big lie” because the phrase sounds like a Democratic party talking point. Licht also wants more “straight news reporting”, along with more conservative guests.What’s motivating Licht? Follow the money.CNN’s new corporate overseer is Warner Brothers Discovery Inc, which now owns what used to be Time Warner, including CNN. The CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery is David Zaslav.Zaslav has been prodding Licht to reposition CNN to the center, and be a network preferred by “everybody … Republicans, Democrats”.But CNN is never going to be the network preferred by Republicans. Fox News has that sewn up.As Republicans move further rightward into the netherworld of authoritarianism, there’s even less possibility that CNN’s news coverage will be able to satisfy them, nor should CNN even try. If we’ve learned anything from Trump and his lapdogs at Fox News, it’s that facts, data and logic are no longer relevant to the Republican base.Even “straight news reporting” depends on what stories are featured, which facts are highlighted and the context surrounding the news. This necessitates judgment and values.The anti-democracy movement in America (as elsewhere) is among the biggest issues confronting us today. Is reporting on it considered “straight news” or “opinion”? Wouldn’t failing to report on it in a way that sounded alarms be a gross dereliction of duty?Besides, how is it possible to report on Trump or Rudy Giuliani or any number of today’s Republican leaders and not speak of the big lie, or say they’ve broken norms if not laws?So what’s motivating Zaslav? Keep following the money.The leading shareholder in Warner Brothers Discovery is John Malone, a multibillionaire cable magnate. (Malone was a chief architect in the merger of Discovery and CNN.)Malone describes himself as a “libertarian” although he travels in rightwing Republican circles. In 2005, he held 32% of the shares of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. He is on the board of directors of the Cato Institute. In 2017, he donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration.Malone has said he wants CNN to be more like Fox News because, in his view, Fox News has “actual journalism”. Malone also wants the “news” portion of CNN to be “more centrist”.It’s unlikely that Malone instructed Zaslav to tell Licht to fire Stelter. Power isn’t exercised that directly or clumsily in large corporate media bureaucracies.It’s more likely that Licht knew what Zaslav wanted, and Zaslav knew what Malone wanted. A source told Deadline’s Dominic Patten and Ted Johnson that even if Malone didn’t order Stelter’s ouster, “it sure represents his thinking”.Early last spring, Stelter wrote in his newsletter that Malone’s comments about CNN “stoked fears that Discovery might stifle CNN journalists and steer away from calling out indecency and injustice”.When you follow the money behind deeply irresponsible decisions at the power centers of America today, the road often leads to rightwing billionaires.Last Sunday, on his last show, Stelter said:“It’s not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy and dialogue. It’s not partisan to stand up to demagogues. It’s required. It’s patriotic. We must make sure we don’t give platforms to those who are lying to our faces.”Precisely.Sadly, there are still many in America – and not just billionaires like Malone – who believe that holding Trump accountable for what he has done (and continues to do) to this country is a form of partisanship, and that such partisanship has no place in so-called “balanced journalism”.This view is itself dangerous.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
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