An Interview With Tim Alberta on CNN’s Turmoil
Highlights from a “Radio Atlantic” conversation with the writer
Last Friday, The Atlantic published Tim Alberta’s profile of then–CNN CEO Chris Licht. Yesterday, Licht was ousted from the network. Below, in selected excerpts from today’s episode of our podcast Radio Atlantic, Alberta reflects on how Licht’s attempts to save the network went so wrong.
First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic:
- The true purpose of Ukraine’s counteroffensive
- The golf merger may be dead on arrival
- Is Gen Z coming for the GOP?
- The happiest way to change jobs
A Plan Gone Awry
When Chris Licht was brought in to replace CNN’s former president Jeff Zucker in 2022, he was on a mission: He wanted to rid the network of what he saw as the mistakes of the Trump era, and to welcome more Republican viewers. After spending long periods of time talking with Licht over the past year, my colleague Tim Alberta found that while Licht’s theory of how to fix CNN may have made
