Oliver Darcy: “In the wake of The Atlantic‘s explosive story, I’ve spoken with dozens of staffers across the company. There are a wide range of emotions coursing through the halls of CNN. Some staffers are frustrated. Others are angry. Many are sad about the awful state of affairs that has taken hold of an organization they love.”

“There is one near-universal sentiment, however, that has been communicated to me: Licht has lost the room.”

From Tim Alberta’s very long, must-read piece on CNN in The Atlantic:

“At the least, even absent some official agreement, it seemed obvious that CNN leaders had been contorting the coverage to keep Trump happy—perhaps to prevent him from walking offstage. At one point during the pregame show, when the words sexual abuse appeared on the CNN chyron, one of Licht’s lieutenants phoned the control room. His instructions stunned everyone who overheard them: The chyron needed to come down immediately.”

Alberta adds via Twitter: “Cannot overstate how shocked/shaken CNN staffers were at the time of this episode, and how irate others have been as the story spread. Justifiably so. If this decision was indeed made to appease the Trump team—to keep him from quitting the town hall—it is an absolute scandal.”

Semafor: “Last year, CNN commissioned a survey examining viewer trust and the places where CNN was succeeding and falling short with viewers across the ideological spectrum. According to a partial copy of the report, which hasn’t been revealed before, CNN’s coverage of Covid-19 was the third leading cause of distrust in the network behind liberal bias and ‘the Chris Cuomo situation.'”

“Survey respondents of all ideological stripes criticized the network’s “overly dramatic and sensational” and “dire” reporting, the report said.”

“CNN Chief Executive Chris Licht apologized to staff on a morning editorial call, saying news about his management of the network was overshadowing its journalistic achievements,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Licht’s remarks came after an unflattering profile of him in the Atlantic was published on Friday.”

Vanity Fair: “The words are the first from Licht to be made public since the piece was unveiled. Thanks to a rich vein of unfettered access provided over months, the piece detailed the executive’s struggles — and some of his insecurities — during his first year on the job at the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed news outlet.”

Chuck Todd, who has served as moderator of NBC’s Sunday-morning talk show “Meet the Press” since 2014, will pass the baton to colleague Kristen Welker, starting in September, the Washington Post reports.

The New York Times looks at how former head of CNN, Jeff Zucker, is obsessively trying to undermine the network’s current leader, Chris Licht.

Axios: “Zucker remains in constant contact with CNN stars and is a coveted source for media reporters — at a time when Licht is struggling to control his image and organization.”

Fox News host Mark Levin said that a January 6 rioter convicted of threatening to hang then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (R-CA) and accosting police “didn’t do anything,” the HuffPost reports.

Tim Alberta spent stretches of the past year shadowing Chris Licht, the new boss at CNN, who harbored ambitions of rehabilitating the journalism industry.

His lengthy account — based on interviews with nearly 100 of his own reporters — shows it didn’t work.

Laura Wagner, the Washington Post’s new media reporter, recently called upon Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to “eat shit you clown fuck” while a staff writer at Defector.

Axios: “CNN boss Chris Licht has told the RNC that CNN would air the debate not just on its linear feed, but also potentially on the linear networks of other Warner Bros. Discovery channels, two sources told Axios. By including those channels, Licht has argued, CNN could reach more conservatives than Fox, as well as independent voters.”

“Licht also has offered to partner with a conservative-leaning outlet on the debates. That partnership, two sources told Axios, could include giving a journalist from the partner outlet a co-moderator spot.”

“An FBI search earlier this month at the home of media consultant Tim Burke and his wife, Tampa City Council member Lynn Hurtak, stemmed from an investigation of alleged computer intrusions and intercepted communications at the Fox News Network,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The Wrap: “The town hall, which will air on Fox News on Thursday, June 1 from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. ET, will be pre-taped from a recording earlier in the day from Clive, Iowa, distinguishing itself from CNN’s controversial live Trump town hall moderated by Kaitlan Collins earlier this month.”

“Elon Musk has displaced Rupert Murdoch and Fox News as the king of conservative media in recent weeks,” Axios reports.

“Fox News used to be the place where conservatives went to break news. But the right-wing ecosystem has turned on the network, leaving Twitter as the center of media gravity for the Republican Party just as the 2024 election heats up.”

Charlie Warzel: “Twitter has long been described, even by its most ardent users, as a hellsite. But under Elon Musk, Twitter has evolved into a platform that is indistinguishable from the wastelands of alternative social-media sites such as Truth Social and Parler. It is now a right-wing social network.”

“In December, I argued that if we are to judge Musk strictly by his actions as Twitter’s owner, it is accurate to call him a far-right activist. As a public figure, he has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the right’s culture war against progressivism—which he refers to as “the woke mind virus”—and his $44 billion Twitter purchase can easily be seen as an explicitly political act to advance this specific ideology.”

“Now the site itself has unquestionably transformed under his leadership into an alternative social-media platform—one that offers a haven to far-right influencers and advances the interests, prejudices, and conspiracy theories of the right wing of American politics.”