CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker is the focus of a recent New York Times piece which explores CNN’s battle with the Trump administration, a relationship that has become increasingly more contentious ever since Donald Trump became President Donald Trump.
Michael Grynbaum writes:
The president has shouted down the network’s correspondents, posted insults at its anchors in real time on Twitter and turned anti-CNN epithets into a rallying cry, electrifying the crowd on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference by slamming the “Clinton News Network.”
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“Our folks are just doing their jobs,” Zucker has said. “They wear those insults as a badge of honor.”
This kind of push-back is a bit extraordinary when it comes to the history of CNN, says Grynbaum:
The old CNN may have shrunk from conflict; the new CNN is leaning into it. Once the down-the-middle nerd of the cable news playground, CNN — under the guidance of Mr. Zucker, a former sports and morning show producer with a yen for flood-the-zone programming — is now an elbows-out player in national politics, vociferously pledging to hold a truth-averse White House to account.
One example of this mindset could be seen last week after the administration’s decision to ban CNN and a number of other prominent news outlets from a recent off-camera briefing. CNN anchor Jake Tapper criticized the administration’s move in an on-air monologue where he deemed the president’s treatment of CNN and other news outlets as “un-American.”
Zucker and Pres. Trump go back many years to when Zucker ran NBC in the 2000s, and Trump was of course host of The Apprentice during that time. Trump referred to Zucker as “brilliant” in a 2004 book, and complimented him on Twitter back in 2012 when he was first hired by CNN.
.@CNN is looking at Jeff Zucker to lead them out of the forest–Jeff would be a great choice.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2012
.@CNN is looking at Jeff Zucker to lead them out of the forest–Jeff would be a great choice.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2012
They don’t seem to be particularly friendly anymore. “Ask Jeff Zucker how he got his job,” Pres. Trump told CNN’s Jim Acosta during a Feb. 16 news conference.
It will be interesting to see if or when the two men make up, although that’s not looking good these days.