Peter Bart: As Ukraine Fights, Cable News Channels Struggle To Rediscover Their Mission
deadline.comFor the past seven years, Chris Licht’s favorite comic has been Stephen Colbert. As the new chairman of CNN, Licht’s focus has instantly shifted to the brilliant ex-comic from Ukraine named Volodymyr Zelensky, whose heroics are the story of the hour.“Give CNN one great news story and all my network’s problems will instantly disappear,” Ted Turner, CNN’s founder, once assured me.The ultimate news junkie, Turner, now 83 and struggling with dementia, surely is mesmerized by the Ukraine drama, both on camera and off.
The brutal Russian invasion has not only pulled cable news out of its doldrums but also put the spotlight on the behind-the-scenes chaos playing out at CNN and its rivals.
Managements are changing mid-stream and so are their underlying narratives.The bravery of the cable news reporters and cameramen reminds us of their ability to change history, even as they report it.
Also of the turmoil of their corporate parents.In a management shift unique in its clumsiness, Licht, Colbert’s executive producer, will replace CNN’s abrasive news oligarch Jeff Zucker, and, perhaps inevitably, also some of his talented, if geriatric, anchors.But that won’t happen until May, when Licht will take his job and also get a new boss in David Zaslav, who becomes CEO of Warner Bros Discovery.
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