Think things couldn’t get better now that Elon owns Twitter, has fired a bunch of woke execs, and is supposedly preparing to fire a huge chunk of the company’s woke staffers?
Think again. All that’s happening, but it’s not just woke Twitter employees that are going to get pink slips. Turns out, CNN employees might be given the boot too.
That’s because CNN’s new boss, Chris Licht, remains committed to making the once-important news network a functional news network again rather than a cesspool of mostly unwatched leftist opinion. As such, he needs to do what Musk is gearing up to do and fire a bunch of woke employees.
And now it looks like that’s coming not just to woke talking heads like Acosta and Stelter, but also to a large number of staffers generally. Licht announced as much in a letter to Twitter staff that was then posted to Twitter:
Chris Licht just sent this note to CNN staff: "There is widespread concern over the global economic outlook, and we must factor that risk into our long-term planning. All this together will mean noticeable change to this organization. … These changes will not be easy…" pic.twitter.com/4eKUuitYFv
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 26, 2022
In the letter, Licht said:
”I have spent the last six months meeting so many of you and diving deep into every corner of the company to understand how you do the incredible work CNN produces every day, how we’re structured, and defining our top priorities. As many of you know, I have also spent much of that time doing formal business reviews with senior staff to identify areas where we should make changes, investments, and reductions to match our future priorities.
"*" indicates required fields
“We have already begun working toward CNN’s future, implementing a strategy that puts our journalism first and grows our digital stronghold. We restructured our digital team and are investing significantly in the product. We combined our newsgathering operations across linear and digital to ensure we can bring our full reporting firepower to any platform we are on. We are beginning to reimagine our morning and primetime lineups, officially launching our new morning show next week, We’ve started building our Sunding night long-form program. We have also begun to reduce or eliminate areas that aren’t core to our mission. All these moves are designed to keep CNN essential across platforms to ensure that wherever and however people get their news, they must have CNN.
“There is a lot more to be done. I am writing to you today to say that over the next several weeks, that work will accelerate. There is widespread concern over the global economic outlook, and we must factor that risk into our long-term planning. All this together will mean noticeable change to this organization. That, by definition, is unsettling. These changes will not be easy because they will affect people, budgets, and projects.
“We will be strategic in this process and will minimize the impact on our core newsgathering operation and Digital, both of which have already executed smart changes. let me be clear: I will not allow these changes to affect our position as the world’s leading news source, and we will continue to invest in growth areas. When we conclude this process, CNN will still be the largest, most-respected newsgathering organization in the world. We will continue to cover any story, anywhere, any time–with more resources than anyone else. Full stop.
“Our aim is to have most of these decisions made by the end of the year so we can start 2023 feeling settled and prepared for the future, We will send updates as I have them, and I plan to hold town hall meetings in both November and December.
“When we emerge on the other side, CNN will be a stronger, more nimble organization, ready to weather whatever the global economy throws at us and to grow into the future.”
In other words, lots of redundant or otherwise unnecessary people at CNN are going to be fired right before Christmas. Between the Twitter situation and this, Christmas came early this year!