Roots..

 
Chris Licht came into the top spot at CNN pronouncing he had a clear view of what was wrong with the cable news channel, the vision to fix it, and the corporate backing that would enable him to turn the ship around. 

Barely more than a year later, with the channel's battered ratings further sagging, the formats for key shows still in doubt, internal strife at crisis levels, and journalists inside CNN still questioning what his vision is, Licht is gone, ousted by the corporate patron who wooed him to the network, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav. 

Licht had argued that CNN had strayed too far from its roots, and spent much of his time publicly condemning the network's coverage of former President Donald Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic and many other key subjects. In so doing, he was echoing the mandate of Zaslav, who had taken over CNN as part of Discovery's acquisition of Warner Media last year.