John Stankey and David Zaslav Address Jeff Zucker’s Resignation

Mr. Zucker resigned on Wednesday after admitting he had violated corporate policy by failing to disclose a romantic relationship with Allison Gollust, another top executive at CNN.

Newsroom tensions have spilled out into the open since Mr. Zucker announced his departure, with many of his loyal employees questioning the circumstances behind the move. Mr. Zucker acknowledged the relationship as part of an investigation by WarnerMedia into the tenure of the former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. For months, Mr. Zucker had defended Mr. Cuomo, his highest-rated anchor, even after it was revealed that he had advised his brother, the former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo, on fending off a sexual harassment scandal. But CNN eventually fired Mr. Cuomo, and he is now fighting for severance pay.

The executives sidestepped intense speculation regarding whether Mr. Zucker was forced out.

“The decision to resign was Jeff’s decision — and it’s an unfortunate set of circumstances,” Mr. Stankey said. Ms. Gollust did not resign because her “circumstances are different,” he said.

Mr. Zaslav pushed back against any implication that John Malone, the billionaire chairman of Liberty Media, a significant shareholder in Discovery, had anything to do with the move. In November, Mr. Malone gave an interview to CNBC that was interpreted as a critique of the direction CNN had gone in the past few years under Mr. Zucker.

“None of us had anything to do with it,” Mr. Zaslav said of Mr. Zucker’s resignation.

With Mr. Zucker gone, there is new uncertainty over CNN+, the digital news service that he was building and that is seen as key to the network’s future as more viewers leave traditional cable for streaming platforms.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/business/media/att-discovery-cnn-jeff-zucker.html