Dan Abrams Reviews the Five Stages of Grief in CNN’s Coverage of Jeff Zucker’s Ouster

Mediaite founder Dan Abrams broke down CNN’s attempts to process the resignation of their president and senior executive, Jeff Zucker.

The NewsNation host used his latest “Mediaite Moments” segment to announce that he got “a weird and angry tweet from a top CNN person” who was complaining about a Mediaite story. This comes after Abrams objected to CNN’s decision to air a special about police misconduct while Americans witness the fallout of multiple cop killings around the country.

“I thought to myself, has this guy been out too late? Maybe he had a few cocktails? I ignored it.” Abrams said. “But now I think I know why he was having such a bad night.”

From there, Abrams focused on the news explosion that happened on Wednesday after CNN announced Zucker was stepping down. The network chief was compelled to resign over an undisclosed relationship with CNN chief marketing officer Allison Gollust. While the relationship between the two was consensual, failure to disclose the liaison was a violation of WarnerMedia corporate policy.

Abrams observed that the development forced CNN into a position where the network had to appear objective even while covering the circumstances of Zucker leaving. In reviewing CNN’s coverage, Abrams came up with “the 5 stages of dealing with my boss getting fired or resigning.”

“The first phase: praising your former boss,” Abrams said. From there, he rolled footage of Brian Stelter calling Zucker a “larger-than-life figure” while gushing over Zucker’s leadership.

The second phase was “sadness” since Abrams aired a portion of CNN Newsroom where they wondered how the network will fill the leadership void. Next was “rationalization” as Abrams pointed out how CNN had to journalistically explain how the decision behind Zucker’s ouster was made.

“Uncertainty and confusion” were the fourth stage as Abrams rolled a clip of Stelter and Jake Tapper establishing that the lack of disclosure was at the root of Zucker’s ouster, not the relationship itself. The last phase was “kick him on the way out,” with Abrams citing Stelter’s report on “sources” who say Zucker volunteered to help with the leadership transition, but WarnerMedia threatened to fire him if he didn’t leave right away.

“Bottom line, either someone was out to get rid of Jeff Zucker, or there’s more to this story,” Abrams summarized. “No one actually believes this is all just about failing to disclose a consensual relationship. But one place we won’t get the real answers: by watching CNN.”

Watch above, via NewsNation.