Move over Fox News, there’s a new rift in Washington DC between Biden and the new bosses at CNN.
The White House is openly complaining that the new leadership at CNN is cleaning house and not continuing the same “zeal” as previous head Jeff Zucker.
From Politico:
One person with knowledge of the situation said White House officials were irked by the negative coverage of President JOE BIDEN’s speech last week in Philadelphia decrying the threats to American democracy. The person specifically noted the network’s focus on the speech’s optics in which Biden stood in front of a dramatic red background with several U.S. Marines behind him.
First off, if you acquired a new business, why on earth would you wrap the business model around a failing administration? Zucker drove the network into the ground.
Biden’s Chief of Staff Ron Klain was not happy when one of his CNN minions got the boot after their comments about former President Trump after Joe Biden’s decisive September 1st speech.
After Biden’s speech, CNN reporter John Harwood posted on social media that, “Biden’s assertion that Trump and extremist Republicans pose a threat to American democracy is, undeniably, true.”
At noon the following day, he announced that CNN had let him go.
personal news:
today’s my last day at CNN
proud of the work
thanks to my colleagues
i’ve been lucky to serve the best in American media – St. Petersburg Times, WSJ, NYT, the NBC family, CNN
look forward to figuring out what’s next
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) September 2, 2022
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain immediately complained:
So when CNN White House correspondent JOHN HARWOOD (whose coverage has been harshly critical of DONALD TRUMP) announced he was leaving the network long before his contract was up, it was noticeable how quickly Klain blasted out a number of tweets praising Harwood. Among those including a tweet that criticized Licht by name. One CNN staffer told West Wing Playbook that during an internal meeting this week, Licht brushed off online criticism of the Harwood departure.
The White House is now calling CNN “diet Fox.”
To the White House, anything other than blind allegiance is now considered “right-wing.”