Chris Licht is out at CNN as CEO. Apparently the staff of the network refuses to have adult supervision. A mean girls malicious gossip campaign ensued. Ultimately, Licht was guilty of letting Trump speak at his own town hall.
CNN itself described Licht’s tenure as “tumultuous” and cited his “severe missteps” (by which they mean the town hall). CNN claims that the townhall was “widely viewed as a mistake” (by which they mean their own viewers resented that Trump acquitted himself well). Christiane Amapour stated:
“I still respectfully disagree with allowing Donald Trump to appear in that particular format.”The leftist view, then, is that Trump should not be platformed. That is what they’re mad about.
Licht had low ratings and a staff in rebellion against him. According to CNBC, the Trump Town Hall in New Hampshire got 3.3 million viewers, but then the ratings cratered following the event, with even Newsmax beating CNN in the ratings. Was this because of leftist viewers fleeing due to their hurt feelings? After all, the town hall was “packed with scores of the president’s cheering fans.” But Trump is currently in a Republican primary, so it makes sense to have Republicans in the audience. I dare say that’s the one time CNN might tolerate their presence.
Mollie Hemingway Tweeted:
This was not Licht’s first rodeo in liberal media. He was executive producer of “Morning Joe” at its launch in 2007 and executive producer for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
The Washington Post’s Perry Bacon chalked up Licht’s failure to “anti wokism” among “powerful White men who live on the coasts.” Of course, the journalist conceives of “woke” as “movements towards greater equality.” It’s also driven by resentment of White men and a racial grievance which demands greater government intervention to ensure equal outcomes. In other words, not capitalism and not a meritocracy. This is why even centrists such as Chris Licht, Elon Musk, and Jack Dorsey might not be on board. True, they are white males. Does that mean they should be vilified for that very fact?
In the view of leftists, the problem with Licht is that he’s a “centrist,” and he’s also guilty of being a white male, a group of people who are no longer welcome to express their opinions. Included in this group of Democrat White Males who have the nerve to adapt centrist opinions is Chuck Todd of Meet the Press. It’s amazing that for leftists, Todd was too much of a centrist. He upset them for not being… partisan enough! Though Todd has always been transparently advocating for the Democrat party, perhaps he was not on board with a particular faction of the Democrat party. Todd defended himself, saying he will not give in to “partisans.” I had assumed he was referring to the right, but he was actually referring to hysterical leftists on Twitter.
According to Bacon, Licht criticized those who didn’t like his approach as being more interested in “advocacy” than journalism. I think that’s correct, that is what the CNN staffers want. They want to advocate for the Democrat party. Licht, on the other hand, apparently was trying to make CNN do more objective news and journalism. That is why he so triggered the people around him.
It’s kind of amazing how many critics of the mainstream media come from the left. They see the editorials and reporters on TV advocate for the Democrat party in various ways, but still somehow find this wanting. Often, it seems to be that they feel the mainstream media is quite not woke enough, which is to say, they want more advocacy for their ethnic grievance. In the WaPo editorial, White males are called out specifically for defending their right to…speak. But criticizing wokeness or expresses a moderate view on race or gender is now beyond the pale appaerently:
“The left-wing movements of the past decade, particularly Black Lives Matter, say America is dominated by white supremacy, patriarchy and out of control capitalism. So it is not surprising that rich White men view these movements, particularly their more radical ideas, with some skepticism.”Bacon also puts New York Times publisher Sulzberger in the camp of rich white men who dislike the hysteria from leftists on Twitter. It seems what the WaPo writer, who is African American, is saying is that ideas which appeal to his vanity, such as critical race theory and the conceit that police are racist, are not allowed to be questioned. That’s just the type of anti-intellectualism which these so-called centrists are rebelling against. What the critics on the left like this guy Bacon want is for everyone to ascribe to a view of reality which is most flattering to their ethnic narcissism and their sense of grievance. If you disagree and you happen to be a white male, you will be called out on that basis.
There was even push back in the comment section of that same editorial, generally against the constraints of wokism against free speech and its ridiculous language. One representative comment, which was clearly from a Democrat and a WaPo reader:
“Wait, people actually use the term "birthing people" to describe women who have children?? No wonder Rowling was getting it in the neck, if that's all she was trying to argue. No wonder the gqp, who should be extinct in any sane country, is still a competitive party.”By their deranged “gqp” label, you could see this person is an unhinged leftist–actually you can tell that by the fact that they subscribe to WaPo. Yet even they have a problem with the writer’s thesis–that there are too many nonwoke white male Democrats.
Licht accidently “let Trump be Trump.” This turned out to be a good moment for the incipient Trump 2024 campaign. This was Licht’s unforgivable sin. For at least a moment, he stopped advocating for leftist causes and let a presidential candidate speak his mind.
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