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Tim Alberta, a journalist with the Atlantic Magazine, has written one of the most astonishing,

illuminating and revealing portraits of a media executive of the modern era. The portrait is of CEO, Chris Licht, the leader of CNN. Two things are immediately clear

about Chris Licht and CNN from this profile. And it's this. CNN has been wrecked. It was wrecked

by the Trump era. It was wrecked by Jeffrey Lord and

Corey Lewandowski and the partnership that Jeff Zucker forged with Donald Trump in a national

reality show. And it was wrecked by the Warner Discovery merger. There is a crisis at CNN, as there is a crisis across the broad spectrum

of American journalism. It is a crisis that is equal to the political crisis, to the business

leadership crisis, and to the institutional crises across America that has hollowed out and disintegrated the bonds of trust between the American people and the vital institutions that we rely on that are necessary for the sustainment of the government of the people by the people for the people.

The very first thing that jumps out reading the Atlantic Magazine profile

is the magnitude of the ethical crisis that has arisen from corporate interference at CNN.

That much is perfectly clear. Chris Lict is daily bombarded by David Zassloth, who is trying

to interfere editorially with the operations of a news organization.

Now, any network president has only one standard, and that is to protect the editorial integrity

of the mission of the organization and the journalists who are fighting to expose the truth, truth against power,

to afflict the comfortable in the name of the public interest. That is what journalism is.

And Chris Licked doesn't understand that his first job is to tell David Zasloff, no.

What Tim Alberta's profile shows is that Chris Lickt is lost, utterly, completely, hopelessly lost.

He is in over his head as much as any person has ever been.

It's really extraordinary.

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