Jeff Zucker Resigns From CNN After Relationship
With Top Executive
The relationship came up during the network’s
investigation into the former anchor Chris Cuomo. “I was required to disclose
it when it began but I didn’t,” Mr. Zucker wrote in a memo to colleagues.
Michael M.
GrynbaumJohn Koblin
By Michael
M. Grynbaum and John Koblin
Feb. 2,
2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/business/media/jeff-zucker-cnn.html
Jeff Zucker
resigned on Wednesday as the president of CNN, departing one of the most
powerful positions in American media after acknowledging that he had failed to
disclose a romantic relationship with another senior executive at the network.
The sudden
end of Mr. Zucker’s nine-year tenure stunned his newsroom and threw CNN’s
future into flux at a crucial moment: The network is about to introduce a
high-stakes streaming service, and its parent company, WarnerMedia, is on the
verge of being acquired by Discovery Inc.
Mr. Zucker,
56, wrote in a memo on Wednesday that his relationship had come up during an
internal investigation into the conduct of Chris Cuomo, the CNN anchor who was
fired in December over his involvement in the political affairs of his brother,
former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York.
“I was
asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have
worked with for more than 20 years,” Mr. Zucker wrote. “I acknowledged the
relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it
began but I didn’t. I was wrong.”
He was
referring to Allison Gollust, CNN’s executive vice president and one of the
network’s highest-ranking leaders, who said on Wednesday that she would remain
at CNN.
“Jeff and I
have been close friends and professional partners for over 20 years,” Ms.
Gollust wrote. “Recently, our relationship changed during Covid. I regret that
we didn’t disclose it at the right time.”
Both Mr.
Zucker and Ms. Gollust are divorced. Mr. Zucker is also leaving his role as
WarnerMedia’s chairman of news and sports.
A leader in
the television industry for 30 years, Mr. Zucker is the rare behind-the-scenes
executive whose name recognition rivaled that of the anchors he oversees. He is
perhaps best known for hiring Donald J. Trump to star in “The Apprentice” on
NBC — and then clashing with his onetime employee after Mr. Trump became a
media-bashing politician who castigated CNN.
In keeping
with a career at the center of the news industry, Mr. Zucker’s exit on
Wednesday was entwined with another dramatic story line: the downfall of the
once-powerful Cuomo brothers.
Chris Cuomo
has fiercely contested the terms of his departure from CNN, which has refused
to pay the anchor’s severance or honor the remainder of his current contract,
saying he engaged in unethical conduct. Mr. Cuomo has retained the powerful
Hollywood litigator Bryan Freedman.
In
discussions with WarnerMedia lawyers, Mr. Cuomo’s legal team raised the subject
of Mr. Zucker’s relationship with Ms. Gollust, according to two people briefed
on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private
conversations.
Early last
week, both Mr. Zucker and Ms. Gollust were asked about their relationship by
lawyers from Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a law firm that WarnerMedia had
retained to investigate Mr. Cuomo’s tenure at the network, according to two
people briefed on internal deliberations.
Lawyers
from Cravath were interviewing CNN officials broadly about Mr. Cuomo’s tenure
and the events that led to his termination, in part because CNN executives
believed the dispute could eventually lead to litigation, according to the two
people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss company business.
Mr. Cuomo’s lawyers sent a letter asking CNN to preserve messages between Mr.
Zucker, Ms. Gollust, Andrew Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo’s staff.
Among other
matters, days before Mr. Cuomo’s firing, CNN had been informed of an accusation
of sexual misconduct against the anchor by a former junior colleague at another
network. Mr. Cuomo has denied the accusation.
WarnerMedia’s
chief executive, Jason Kilar, spoke with Mr. Zucker after the interviews and informed
the CNN president that he could not remain at the company, two people briefed
on their discussion said. Mr. Zucker offered to stay on for a transition period
as the network found a new leader, but Mr. Kilar rejected that suggestion, one
of the people said.
A hands-on
manager who whispers in anchors’ earpieces and calls into the control room at
odd hours, Mr. Zucker had been absent from his usual editorial calls in recent
days. But even some of his closest confidants had no idea that he was on the verge
of an exit. In the CNN newsroom, where Mr. Zucker commands fierce loyalty,
journalists and producers were left stunned.
“This is an
incredible loss,” the anchor Alisyn Camerota said on a broadcast on Wednesday.
“These are two consenting adults who are both executives. That they can’t have
a private relationship feels wrong.”
Mr. Zucker
and Mr. Cuomo were once close. Mr. Zucker recruited the anchor to CNN from ABC
News, and he stood by Mr. Cuomo for months even after revelations that he had
advised aides to Andrew Cuomo on how the governor could fend off a sexual
harassment scandal.
Ms. Gollust
also has a connection to the Cuomo family: She served as communications
director to Andrew Cuomo, then the governor, for four months in 2012 and 2013.
But Mr.
Zucker’s support dwindled in December after more details emerged about Chris
Cuomo’s involvement, including efforts to uncover the status of articles at
other news outlets.
Mr. Kilar,
who is based in Los Angeles, visited New York and Washington on Wednesday to
address CNN executives, saying he had accepted Mr. Zucker’s resignation. He
announced that three executives — Michael Bass, Amy Entelis and Ken Jautz —
would jointly lead CNN on an interim basis through what he anticipated would be
“the close of the pending transaction with Discovery.”
Mr. Kilar,
a former head of Hulu, had been perceived as losing power to Mr. Zucker after
the Discovery deal was announced. AT&T, the parent company of WarnerMedia,
neglected to inform Mr. Kilar about the pending merger until shortly before it
was announced and he had been widely expected to leave once it was completed.
And Mr. Zucker is close friends with David Zaslav, the Discovery chief
executive who is poised to be the leader of the newly combined company.
AT&T is
run by John Stankey, who was Mr. Zucker’s boss and the head of WarnerMedia from
June 2018 through April 2020. Representatives for both AT&T and Discovery
declined to comment.
Mr. Zucker
rose to prominence in the early 1990s when he became the wunderkind executive
producer of NBC’s “Today” show and made stars of Matt Lauer and Katie Couric.
He became chief executive of NBCUniversal in 2007 before he was ousted from the
company in 2010. Battling a series of medical ailments throughout his career,
he began a comeback by joining CNN in January 2013, eventually becoming a
public face of the network in large part because of his complex relationship
with Mr. Trump.
CNN was
criticized during the 2016 presidential campaign for granting enormous amounts
of airtime to speeches by Mr. Trump. But as Mr. Trump hardened against CNN, he
publicly vilified Mr. Zucker and often joined his supporters in chants of “CNN
sucks,” making the network a symbol of what he called a biased press. CNN
itself brought on anti-Trump commentators, and its programming tilted toward
more opinionated territory under Mr. Zucker’s reign.
Mr. Trump
celebrated Mr. Zucker’s resignation on Wednesday, claiming in a statement that
Mr. Zucker had been “terminated for numerous reasons, but predominantly because
CNN has lost its way with viewers and everybody else.”
Fox News,
whose coverage is often criticized by CNN commentators, also featured Mr.
Zucker’s exit on Wednesday, running a headline at the top of its website saying
he “resigns in disgrace.” An accompanying article said Mr. Zucker had
“personally allowed” CNN to “drift from a just-the-facts news operation to a
hyperpartisan opinion platform.”
In recent
months, Mr. Zucker had been focused on the shaping of CNN+, a subscription
streaming service that is set to begin this spring and a major financial bet
for WarnerMedia. Mr. Zucker was involved in enticing big names like Eva
Longoria, the NPR star Audie Cornish and the former Fox News anchor Chris
Wallace to join the fledgling streaming network. CNN will now proceed into an
uncertain digital future without its longtime leader at the helm.
“Together,
we had nine great years,” Mr. Zucker wrote in his memo on Wednesday. “I
certainly wish my tenure here had ended differently. But it was an amazing run.
And I loved every minute.”
Katie
Robertson contributed reporting.
Michael M.
Grynbaum is a media correspondent covering the intersection of business,
culture and politics. @grynbaum
John Koblin
covers the television industry. He reports on the companies and personalities
behind the scripted TV boom, and the networks that broadcast the news. He previously
covered fashion. @koblin
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