CNN president Jeff Zucker has renewed his contract with the news network through the 2020 presidential election, according to a new report.
“I’ve learned that the veteran broadcast executive, who has served as president of Time Warner’s cable news channel since 2013, signed a new deal several months ago that will keep him at CNN through the 2020 election,” writes Joe Pompeo of Vanity Fair.
Reports of Zucker’s contract extension follows the approval of AT&T’s $85.4 billion takeover of Time Warner, the parent company of CNN.
As Breitbart News Economics and Finance Editor John Carney wrote Tuesday, the decision by Judge Richard Leon is widely regarded as a major “setback” for Makan Delrahim, a Trump’s appointee leading the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
CNN, whose anti-Trump coverage has earned the scorn of the President and his supporters, did not place a single program in the top 25 in the month of May. Nielsen Media Research reported the network’s ratings suffered a major collapse in May as the Fox News Channel dominated the cable news wars. Of all the major news networks, CNN experienced the biggest drop in primetime viewership, down a full 25 percent in May.
Zucker came under fire in December amid revelations he and other NBC executives knew of Matt Lauer’s sexual misconduct. During a 2008 Friars Club roast, Zucker joked about Lauer, “It’s just good to see Matt up here and not under my desk. “I don’t want to say Matt is a germophobe, but he’s the only guy I know who uses Purell both before and after he masturbates.”
In another joke, Zucker seemingly hinted that Lauer’s predatory behavior took a toll on his marriage. “Matt was having some trouble at home with the wife,” he quipped. “He was sleeping on Bryant Gumbel’s couch. What’s more boring than that? Two white men watching golf.”
President Trump taunted the CNN executive on Twitter in April, calling him “Little Jeff.”
“Check out the fact that you can’t get a job at ratings-challenged @CNN unless you state that you are totally anti-Trump?” Trump tweeted. “Little Jeff Zuker [sic], whose job is in jeopardy, is not having much fun lately.”
“They should clean up and strengthen CNN and get back to honest reporting!” he added.
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