“Bullshit”: Amid the Don Lemon Drama, Sources Knock Down CNN Sale Rumors
Good morning from the Hive newsroom! As CNN host Don Lemon was in time-out earlier this week over sexist comments, word spread that staffers were riven by competing loyalties to CEO Chris Licht and his immediate predecessor, Jeff Zucker, who was rumored to be considering a buyout. However, after speaking with four well-placed sources, Joe Pompeo is throwing cold water on the prospect of a Zucker takeover. “The remarks I got ranged from ‘not true’ to ‘bullshit’ to ‘beyond fantasy,’” Pompeo writes. “Sources spelled it out bluntly: ‘CNN is not for sale.’”
On the politics front, Molly Jong-Fast opines that there is no room for normal in the Republican Party with Donald Trump in the presidential mix. “This is still Trump’s party,” she writes, “and the rest of the candidates and pundits and everyone are just trying to survive in it.”
Elsewhere, Caleb Ecarma tears into Kevin McCarthy’s decision to hand over unseen footage of January 6 to Tucker Carlson. Bess Levin unpacks Ron DeSantis’s legislative effort to defang liberal media. Plus, Charlotte Klein has the latest on The Athletic’s foray into Formula 1 coverage. “It’s sort of a breakout moment for a sport that had already broken out,” as one editor tells her. Thanks for reading!
