Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav gave former CNN chief Chris Licht a warm endorsement, even hinting at the possibility that the TV news vet could work again with the company.
Licht is a “great guy, talented guy,” Zaslav said at the New York Times DealBook conference at Jazz at Lincoln Center, as Licht sat in the audience. The exec was ousted from CNN last June after a tumultuous run capped by a damning profile in The Atlantic. Weeks before the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger closed in April 2022, Zaslav had chosen Licht to head up CNN, reportedly without having conducted a robust search process. The two had been personally acquainted before the hiring.
“Chris is a good friend,” Zaslav said. As to their parting ways, he added, “That was … look, there are a lot of good days and a lot of tough days. Chris has had a lot of great days. He created Morning Joe. He created CBS This Morning. We had a lot of fun and a lot of battles together. Chris is going to have a lot of great chapters and hopefully some of those with us at Warner Bros. He’s very talented.”
Moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Zaslav about the state of his relationship with Jeff Zucker, who had been a close friend for many years until his departure as head of CNN in February 2022. Zucker left due to a consensual relationship with colleague Allison Gollust, which had been widely known by staffers. Zucker’s exit caused unrest among CNN talent and staff and even prompted a threat of legal action by Zucker, as Deadline reported at the time.
“It appears that that relationship fractured,” Sorkin said. “I wouldn’t say it fractured,” Zaslav replied. “In the end, I believe that you want to foster friendships, but you have to make the decision that’s the best for the business. And if you have a best friend and they have a great script, if the Warner Bros. team doesn’t think that’s the best storytelling vehicle that we should go with, you have to put the friendships aside.”
Sorkin said business leaders can struggle to discern who their real friends are, and “in Hollywood it’s worse.” Zaslav interjected, “I don’t know about that.” The CEO then said he has “loads of friends” from the course of his career. CNBC talent, including Sorkin and his Squawk Box co-hosts Becky Quick and Joe Kernen, are “still very close friends of mine” dating back to Zaslav’s run at NBC, when he was in on the founding of the business network. “You know who your friends are,” Zaslav said. “And you’re also friend-ly with a lot of people. But you can’t mix the two. And sometimes, when you make a business decision, or sometimes when a business decision is made by your team, your friends can take it personally. They can feel that you should have interceded. And sometimes, you know, it’s unfortunate. And it is emotional. It’s emotional for me. I’d like to always say yes to my friends.”
Mark Thompson, who took over CNN last summer after executive runs at the New York Times Co. and the BBC, got praise from Zaslav at the end of the half-hour session. “Exceptional leader. Ground-up leader,” Zaslav said. “He’s won the hearts and minds of the team.”
Sorkin about the current political orientation of CNN, which has been under scrutiny since WBD board member and Zaslav mentor John Malone decried its left-leaning approach under Zucker.
Zaslav said the company has sought to address the “strategic question of, ‘Should news networks be advocacy networks, or should news networks be journalistic organizations?’ And it’s really a strategic choice, nothing good or bad. For CNN, the choice was, this should be — it is — the greatest journalistic organization in the world.”
