CNN is, to put it mildly, in a state of upheaval after CEO Chris Licht’s abrupt departure on Wednesday.
Frankly, the entire network has been in various states of tumult following former President Donald Trump’s four years in the White House, as it struggled to find any sort of identity outside of “anti-Trump.”
Part of those struggles included attempts by Licht — who took the helm of CNN in April 2022 — to steer the struggling news network from the extreme left to something a little more left-leaning.
With Licht gone, many presumed the pendulum would swing back hard the other way — and early indications point to this being the case.
The New York Times has shed some light on the new interim brain trust who will be operating the beleaguered news network until a permanent replacement for Licht can be found.
According to the report Thursday, three editorial executives will oversee much of the operations, and they will be assisted by a recently hired chief operating officer.
For anyone who enjoyed CNN’s brief and minimal pivot to center-leaning-left, perhaps the most alarming member of this interim leadership is Virginia Moseley, the network’s executive vice president of editorial.
The 61-year-old Moseley is married to Thomas Nides, 62, President Joe Biden’s ambassador to Israel and a man who has deep ties to the Clinton political dynasty.
To suggest she might not be particularly receptive to pro-Republican coverage would not be completely misplaced.
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Aside from being in the Biden administration, Nides was deputy secretary of state for management and resources in the Obama administration from 2011 to 2013, working under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
He was awarded the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award by Clinton in 2013, per The Jerusalem Post.
It’s hard to imagine him or his wife jumping at the chance to critique the very same politicians who have lavished them with such honors.
The issue of Nides’ and Moseley’s impartiality sparked massive concern at the time.
“Inappropriate [Moseley] stayed at CNN. He’s inner circle Biden,” an unnamed media industry veteran told Fox News when Biden announced Nides’ nomination in 2021.
The other members of the interim leadership team might not have such clear and direct ties to the politicians the network should be covering, but each presents a question mark in his or her own right.
Amy Entelis, the 72-year-old executive vice president for talent and content development, has been at CNN since 2012 and was at ABC for another 30 years prior to that.
In other words, she has spent more than half her life working for left-leaning media companies.
Eric Sherling, the 48-year-old executive vice president for U.S. programming, “has spent most of his career at CNN,” according to the Times.
So this is another person deeply entrenched in the philosophies that got CNN into its current ratings woes (at least sans Trump).
David Leavy, meanwhile, is the chief operating officer who was just hired last week. The 53-year-old has the same problem of largely existing in ecosystems that might not help CNN right the ship — he spent decades at Discovery, which has merged into Warner Bros. Discovery — and he too has some deep Clinton ties.
According to the Times, Leavy was the deputy press secretary for foreign affairs during Bill Clinton’s time in the Oval Office.
CNN gave no timetable for finding a permanent replacement for Licht.
