NEW YORK: Chris Licht, the embattled head of CNN, has stepped down “effective immediately,” the network’s parent company Warner Brothers Discovery announced on Wednesday, as the global news outlet struggles to reverse a ratings decline.

After joining CNN last year, Licht came under fire for editorial decisions including a recent town hall meeting with former president Donald Trump that was dominated by cheering from supporters and jeering at moderator Kaitlan Collins.

The shakeup, which comes as major news outlets pivot towards the 2024 US presidential election, highlights the challenges facing those organisations that are aiming to appeal to a broad audience in a deeply divided country in which misinformation is rampant.

During Licht’s tenure, CNN saw ratings diminish even as it tried to position itself in the middle between the hard-right Fox News and the progressive MSNBC.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2023