Who Killed Jeff Zucker’s CNN Career? Clues Point to Fox News Enthusiast John Malone

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The mystery surrounding the killing off of Jeff Zucker’s career as president of CNN is starting to become clearer. While there are often as many versions of a crime as there are witnesses — and in this case, as many killers as there are executives at massive media conglomerates — some clues are starting to lead to top Discovery shareholder John Malone as a key suspect in his ouster.

The media world was rocked this week when Zucker abruptly announced his resignation, citing a romantic relationship with CNN chief marketing officer Allison Gollust the two failed to disclose, which ran afoul of WarnerMedia corporate policy.

As more details emerged, it was reported that had Zucker not resigned, he would have been fired. And if it feels like the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, many at CNN who would agree with you, including, one assumes, its former president.

Zucker’s leadership at CNN fostered a remarkably loyal workplace among executives, senior staffers, and in particular, on-air talent, many of whom continue to fantasize about his return once a looming merger with Discovery is completed. David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery, noted on CNBC’s Squawk Box that he considered Zucker a close friend and has no say in HR policies at a company he has yet to take over.

But for all the love Zucker felt within CNN, he had also a strong set of enemies, largely based on his leadership decisions over the past few years. CNN’s constant criticism of Fox News programming led to a comical villainization of Zucker at the competing cabler, and predictable glee from Fox Newsers following his ouster.

There is also the recent dismissal of Chris Cuomo for violating journalistic ethics, which has led to some likening Cuomo’s alleged threats to blow up CNN over unpaid severance to the behavior of a terrorist. What’s more, new reports have suggested that Zucker was advising New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, but our reporting strongly suggests that any interactions occurred in 2020, before the sexual harassment scandal over which Chris Cuomo was fired for advising his brother on.

The last bit of intrigue surrounds Zucker’s apparent outmaneuvering of WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who had stripped the former CNN president of some responsibilities, only to find himself on the outside looking in at a potential Discovery-Warner merger that seemed to have been — at least in part — forged by Hamptons golfing buddies Zaslav and Zucker.

It is within this Shakespearean milieu that questions about Zucker’s ouster remain. Since we’re apparently living out a high-stakes game of cable news Clue, I posit that it could have been Malone holding the metaphorical murder weapon.

Writing for Deadline, Dominic Patten and Ted Johnson reported the following on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, at even higher levels, there has been a heavy dose of consternation surrounding Zucker’s exit, given the pending Discovery combination with WarnerMedia. Discovery’s largest shareholder, John Malone, a critic of CNN, made it known that corporate procedures had to be followed to the letter in regards to Zucker, we hear. Being that WarnerMedia’s standards of business conduct require disclosure of relationships that develop with a boss and subordinate, Zucker’s goose was officially cooked.

Well that’s interesting: “Corporate procedures had to be followed to the letter in regards to Zucker.”

It’s unclear Discovery CEO Zaslav played any role in the Zucker ouster. CNN’s Brian Stelter reported he found out just hours before, and Puck’s Matt Belloni reported “Zaslav was given a heads up before the Zucker news became public, but he wasn’t involved in the decision to fire his golfing buddy.”

But if Deadline’s reporting is accurate, Malone had at least some involvement by making it known he wanted procedures to be followed with regards to Zucker.

Why would Malone be such a stickler for HR policy? The answer to that question is neatly revealed by Malone’s own appearance on CNBC’s SquawkBox last year.

CNBC Anchor David Faber asked Malone if there is any place for news in a streaming network, admitting that he didn’t know if CNN would be a “value add or not” to the potentially-merged media behemoth. Malone tipped his vision by answering a question about CNN by first lauding its top-rated competitor, Fox News.

“Fox News, in my opinion,  has followed an interesting trajectory of trying to have news news, I mean some actual journalism, embedded in a program schedule of all opinions,” Malone replied. “And I think they’ve been relatively successful with a service like Bret Baier, and Brit Hume before him, that try to distinguish news from opinion.”

In case his message wasn’t clear enough, Malone was clearly criticizing the trajectory of CNN, which Zucker had at that point led since 2013.

“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,” he continued (which can only be viewed as a bad omen for the journalists currently under CNN’s employ).

CNBC’s Joe Kernan flatly asked AT&T CEO John Stankey about Malone’s opinion on CNN and how it may have been impacted Zucker’s ouster, to which he refused to dismiss and only chose not to speculate on this theory.

A source close to Malone told Mediaite that the top Discovery shareholder, and chairman for Liberty Media, was “not a fan” of Zucker’s and that while the undisclosed relationship with Gollust could (or should) have led to a suspension, it was a convenient way to force Zucker out at CNN.

Malone has been described as a libertarian and sits on the board of the Cato Institute. He also reportedly donated $250,000 to the inauguration of former President Donald Trump, as did Liberty Media’s CEO Greg Maffei.

It’s clear that, right now, the primary concern for Stankey and Zaslav is to complete the merger between Discovery and Warner, which is expected to happen mid-to-late Spring.

It is also clear that, presuming the deal happens (which still seems likely) Zaslav will be inheriting a news network filled with a number of very unhappy senior staffers and on-air talent. And Malone’s implicit suggestion that CNN pivot to the Fox News model? That will not play well.