Dead Man Walking, Literally: Warner Bros. Honcho David Zaslav Fired CNN’s Chris Licht During Early Morning Central Park Walk
Ousted CNN boss Chris Licht was fired by Warner Bros. head honcho David Zaslav during a walk in central park, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Licht's brief stint as chairman and CEO of CNN, which lasted a little over a year, was stained with scandals, historically low ratings and revenue loss. In an ironic twist of fate, Licht was allegedly dismissed from the network in the same way he was offered the job.
According to the New York Times, Licht departed his Manhattan home early on Wednesday morning to meet Zaslav for a meeting at Central Park.
The meeting was not unusual for Zaslav and Licht, who was offered the job 13-months prior on a similar stroll.
Despite the routine behavior, Licht's sudden exit from the left-leaning network was somewhat shocking, given the series of scandals he had already weathered with the network.
Licht addressed his departure from the network in a statement on Wednesday.
"This was an exciting but incredibly challenging assignment, and I learned a lot over the past 13 months," the ousted CEO shared. "I’ve been lucky enough to have had a successful, fulfilling career, and I look forward to my next chapter."
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David Zaslav
About two hours after their Central Park walk, Zaslav informed CNN staff that Licht was no longer with the network.
"For a number of reasons things didn’t work out, and that’s unfortunate," the Warner Bros. executive said on the staff call. "This job was never going to be easy."
While Licht was able to dodge consequences of viewer's outrage over Donald Trump's messy town hall, as well as internal strife over former anchor Don Lemon, it appeared that a recent article from The Atlantic was the final nail in Licht's CNN coffin.
In a lengthy 15,000-word article, The Atlantic's Tim Alberta chronicled Licht's time thus-far at the liberal network.
The article appeared to reveal an arrogant attitude from Licht toward his now former network. The ousted CEO was painted as untouchable as he was quoted discussing CNN's coverage of the pandemic and Trump presidency.