The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta Warns Brian Stelter: ‘I Would Be Nervous’ if I Was At CNN Following Zucker’s Ouster

CNN’s Brian Stelter discussed the future of the network with The New Yorker writer, Ken Auletta who suggested caution with new leadership, amid Former Head of CNN, Jeff Zucker’s resignation.

Zucker announced his shocking resignation on Wednesday, after admitting to a romantic relationship with Allison Gollust, a top executive at CNN, which he failed to disclose and violated corporate policy.

Last year, AT&T announced its intention to combine WarnerMedia and Discovery under a merger deal. Auletta invoked the statements from David Zaslav, Chief Executive Officer of Discovery Communications, who earlier this week commented on the abrupt resignation.

The New Yorker writer said that Zucker “and Zaslav are close friends. Not polite friends, they’re close friends,” in reference to Zaslav’s expressed appreciation for Zucker in his public statements.

Auletta continued by mentioning John Malone, billionaire media mogul, who holds stake in the merger, “Ted Turner considered John Malone his top investor and advocate, so he felt that John Malone was actually behind him and behind the newscast that CNN had created.”

“Now, Malone has since criticized CNN for too much advocacy, too much commentary, too little reporting from the world,” stated Auletta, invoking Malone’s recent criticism of the network.

Auletta somewhat agreed with Malone saying, “There’s some merit to that. I mean, CNN had always talked about how we cover the world like no one else…Well, they don’t do it.”

“If you watch CNN regularly, the’s much more domestic news on it, much less international news,” continued Auletta, until Stelter quickly interjected.

“I disagree with you, but we can fight about that some other time,” said Stelter, attempting to move away from criticism of CNN.

Stelter then rolled the clip of Malone saying, “I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing.”

The anchor assessed that “Many CNN staffers found that be offensive. Jeff Zucker found that to be quite disturbing because he’s looking at that thinking, what is Discovery’s key shareholder going to do to CNN?”

“It’s a joke. It’s not real, and he’s wrong,” said Auletta in response to Malone’s harsh critique.

However, Auletta continued, “If I was at CNN and I was an employee and I loved working under Jeff Zucker for understandable reasons I would be concerned.”

“And if you watch CNN, the anchors are much more animated with opinions than they were when Ted Turner started the network,” The New Yorker writer added.

“True,” Stelter concurred.

“So I would be a little nervous if I was at CNN, yes,” concluded Auletta.

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