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CNN’s Decline Continues Staff ‘Freaked Out’ After Another Round of Layoffs

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


CNN has wiped out the rest of the staff that was left with the demise of CNN +.

The streaming service was killed less than a month after it began and on Wednesday sources said that the rest of the staff that remained was laid off, The Daily Beast reported.

Roughly 20 staffers were given pink slips on a Wednesday morning call, said three sources with knowledge of the situation. Among those fired were members of the Interview Club, a team launched alongside the network’s streamer earlier this year that would “allow subscribers to drive the conversation and be part of the story.”

In a February press release announcing the creation of Interview Club, the network stated this was an opportunity for CNN+ subscribers to “connect directly with anchors, experts and special guests in live, interactive conversations.” This was supposed to entail the streamer’s users sending in questions either live or in advance of CNN+ scheduled interviews via their device.

Members of the Interview Club were told on Wednesday morning that the network will not move forward with the project. Additionally, those impacted would be given an opportunity to apply for other open positions in the company.

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After the streaming service ended the staffer were said to be “strung along” for months with promises that they would be used on the digital side.

“Leadership has spent the past several months evaluating our business to ensure it is best positioned for the future,” a spokesperson for CNN said. “As part of that exercise, we will stop doing some things and start doing others. CNN has opened more than 300 new jobs since May and will continue to align our resources with our greatest opportunities for growth.”

It comes after CNN had a series of firings after new ownership came onboard.

Earlier this month, reports noted that remaining CNN staffers were “terrified” of being fired as the new CEO, Chris Licht, appears to be doing some house cleaning by getting rid of the most partisan talents at the network.

Mere hours after he praised President Joe Biden’s anti-MAGA Republican speech, CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood was gone from the news network.

CNN has been undergoing changes with the idea of getting to a more centrist news style and away from partisan leaning, and that has meant that some CNN personalities have to go.

Neither the network nor Harwood said if he was fired, quit or it was a mutual decision, but the timing had many wondering if his praise of President Biden’s divisive speech was the cause.

Harwood said in a tweet, “personal news: today’s my last day at CNN proud of the work thanks to my colleagues i’ve been lucky to serve the best in American media – St. Petersburg Times, WSJ, NYT, the NBC family, CNN look forward to figuring out what’s next.”

It came hours after Harwood made his opinion known on President Biden’s speech when he appeared on the CNN show “New Day.”

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“The core point he made in that political speech about a threat to democracy is true. Now, that’s something that’s not easy for us, as journalists, to say. We’re brought up to believe there’s two different political parties with different points of view and we don’t take sides in honest disagreements between them. But that’s not what we’re talking about,” he said.

“These are not honest disagreements. The Republican Party right now is led by a dishonest demagogue. Many, many Republicans are rallying behind his lies about the 2020 election and other things as well. And a significant portion—or a sufficient portion—of the constituency that they’re leading attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, violently. By offering pardons or suggesting pardons for those people who violently attacked the Capitol, which you’ve been pointing out numerous times this morning, Donald Trump made Joe Biden’s point for him,” he said.

Before that he agreed with the premise of President Biden’s speech on Twitter.

“Biden’s assertion that Trump and extremist Republicans pose a threat to American democracy is, undeniably, true,” he said.

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