CNN CEO Chris Licht: ‘Vitriol, especially from the left, has been stunning’

CNN CEO Chris Licht said the “vitriol” aimed at him over changes at the network has been “stunning.”

Licht became CNN’s new boss in May with the goal of creating a more moderate network. The changes he’s made to the network have drawn “uninformed vitriol, especially from the left,” Licht said in an interview with The New York Times.

Licht said he wanted CNN journalists to be seen as “truth tellers,” and wants to get rid of the “name-calling, half-truths and desperation.”

“This wasn’t to plot a new course but to assure people we would not let up one inch in being truth tellers,” he told the NYT in an interview. He added that the network will no longer be focusing on former President Donald Trump “24/7,” nor will they “let him dictate our agenda.”

This comes at a time when CNN viewership has dropped significantly, and the company also lost over $300 million from their investment into CNN+, a streaming service that shut down less than a month after it was created.

Licht, charged with reversing CNN’s downward trend, has already made several changes at the network, such as ending live programming on HLN, cancelling the network’s longtime program “Reliable Sources,” moving prime-time anchor Don Lemon to “CNN This Morning,” and conducting staff layoffs.

He said his ultimate goal for the network is to make it “essential to society,” and to encourage “rational” conversations among viewers.