CNN CEO Jeff Zucker has resigned with immediate effect for concealing an affair with a colleague.
Zucker has headed CNN Worldwide since 2013 and symbolized the station’s critical stance against former US President Donald Trump. At the beginning of last year, he had already expressed the expectation to leave by the end of that year.
Zucker, 56, now says he was wrong in hiding his relationship with the channel’s marketing director. He acknowledged that he should have disclosed it immediately when it was officially asked, but he didn’t. ,,I was wrong. That’s why I’m resigning today,” Zucker said in a statement.
The CNN boss cooperated in an investigation into CNN presenter Chris Cuomo, the brother of Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of the American state of New York. Chris stood by Andrew when he was charged with sexual harassment earlier this year and had to resign.
Close colleague
Chris is said to have tried to use his contacts in the media to prepare Andrew and his team for the time the women came out with their accusations. “As part of the investigation, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague,” Zucker wrote.
According to CNN, Zucker is in a relationship with marketing director Allison Gollust. “Someone I’ve worked with for over 20 years,” Zucker said. Gollust will retain her position at the television station. It is not yet known who will succeed Zucker at the news channel.
‘Facts first’
Zucker took the lead at CNN at a time when observers said the station was experiencing an identity crisis. Zucker renewed the programming, according to CNN itself about the resignation. Under Zucker, CNN used the slogan “facts first,” accusing President Trump of lying.
Zucker thus became a villain to Trump and a regular bogeyman in the right-wing media, with hosts from the competing Fox viciously attacking him. “It was all evidence of Zucker’s larger-than-life status in the news business” and of his influence on wider discussions in American politics, CNN said.
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