Who remembers Perestroika? It was a “Hail Mary pass” from Mikhail Gorbachev to save the USSR. Perestroika means “restructuring” in Russian, but it did not save the communist economy. Well, not long ago, CNN hired a fellow named Chris Licht to save the ratings-challenged network. He fired Don Lemon and tried to change the image of the network. This week, we learned that Mr. Licht is out.
This is the story:
Mr. Licht’s 13-month run at CNN was marked by one controversy after another, culminating in his exit earlier this week. He got off to a bumpy start even before he had officially started when he oversaw the shuttering of the costly CNN+ streaming service at the request of its network’s new owners, who were skeptical about a stand-alone digital product. The cuts resulted in scores of layoffs.
David Zaslav, the chief executive of CNN’s parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, informed staff on Wednesday morning that he had met with Mr. Licht and that he was leaving, effective immediately.