With the morale at CNN at its lowest point in history and their ratings even lower, the network today indicated that it might be going in a different direction in the post-Jeff Zucker era. Zucker, the CEO who turned the once respectable network into factory that mass-produced liberal talking points and anti-conservative rhetoric is gone and inside sources say a new leader is emerging behind the scenes.
Now, the network is telling its viewers that the COVID-19 science has changed and this week sharply pivoted from its pro-mask mandate stance.
David Zaslav is CEO of Discovery, whose company is poised to close on a sale of CNN had called the network a “leader in news to the left”.
“Discovery CEO David Zaslav, whose media giant is set to close its merger with CNN’s owner WarnerMedia this spring, made the surprise remark during a discussion about the network’s future – days after the abrupt resignation of the network’s president, Jeff Zucker,” Fox News reported this week.
It is being rumored that Zaslav was the driving force behind Zucker’s departure and is now influencing a shift back to straight news by the network, a rumor he said was not true.
“None of us had anything to do with it,” Zaslav said this week.
This week, Dr. Leanna Wen, who also served as President of Planned Parenthood and Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore sharply pivoted from the network’s stance that parents who oppose mask mandates are domestic terrorists out to kill other children by spreading COVID-19 to a more reasonable agreement with the lifting of school mask mandates.
“There is a time and place for pandemic restrictions, but when they went in they it was always with the understanding that they would be removed as soon as we can,” Wen said. “In this case, circumstances have changed. Case counts are declining.”
Wen added, “Also the science has changed.”
Jeff Zucker is also gone.