Was it the 15,000-word magazine profile, the town hall with Donald Trump, or simply poor ratings that did for Chris Licht? After only 13 months in the job, CNN’s CEO stepped down on Wednesday. His tour of mistakes, as chronicled by Tim Alberta in the Atlantic, culminated in a reckless decision to host a town hall with Trump in front of an audience composed mostly of MAGA fans. “Have fun,” Licht told the former President before Trump went on stage, berated the host and unleashed what CNN’s own reporter called an unnecessary “spectacle of lies”. Licht’s theory of how to regain ground in the ratings war – to neutralise anti-Trump reporting (and outspoken hosts) – has backfired and he has paid the price. So has CNN: ratings were down a quarter in May compared with last year. Revenues were down too, by 39 per cent in the first three months of the year, but CNN still made profits of $750 million last year.
