Tag: cnn worldwide

CNN hopes to return to offices August 1 for Atlanta and September 1 for New York

by Allan, posted in CNN

CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker announced he was planning on August and September for its news and sports teams to return to their offices. “These dates were not chosen arbitrarily,” Zucker said in a memo to staff. “We are trying to coincide with back-to-school schedules, assuming that would make the most sense for those with young families.”

In the memo, Zucker said that they were targeting August 1 for a return to Atlanta offices and studios, and September 1 for the New York, Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles bureaus. As for the international bureaus, Zucker says the company is taking a “city-by-city approach” based on the health regulations and rules in those areas — Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi offices are already open; London will have staffers returning next month.

Zucker wrote that because of logistics, “it will likely take a couple of weeks to effectively get everyone back to their desks. But those are generally when you can expect to see the start of a return.” He said that the dates were chosen to coincide with back-to-school schedules.

He said that vaccinations will not be required for a return but they will be “strongly encouraged,” and safety protocols, like the wearing of masks, will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

Reza Aslan says Jeff Zucker canceled his CNN series to appease Trump

by Allan, posted in CNN

reza_aslan_cnn-e1489849197582Over the weekend, fired CNN host Reza Aslan made quite the allegation: CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker made the decision to cancel his show, Believer, in the summer of 2017, in order to appease President Donald Trump.

Aslan had tweeted that Trump was a “piece of shit.” Then, he apologized, under pressure from CNN execs.

“[Jeff] Zucker informed the production company that he was pulling the plug on the show. The response from the production company was, ‘Wait a minute, what? We thought this was over. He apologized. You accepted the apology. This was four days ago,'” Aslan explained to The Daily Beast. According to him, he indicated Zucker said, “I have no choice in the matter.”

He continued, “I had enough friends there who were able to tell me: ‘Look, it’s a matter of access. It’s an access issue.’ The idea was that Trump wouldn’t come on CNN anymore as a result of this. And also, this was at the height of the AT&T merger where Trump was illegally—and publicly—saying that he wasn’t going to allow this merger to happen unless CNN fire Jeff Zucker, because they have this fake “conflict” between them.”

“Why do you say all is forgiven and then four days later cancel the show? It came as a surprise both to us, and to people at the network. Even the higher-ups at CNN were surprised by this move.”

He finished to The Daily Beast: “We tried to call [Zucker] and get some clarity, and that’s when I was sat down and told that the following came directly from Jeff Zucker. What he basically said was, ‘Keep your boy in line, stay quiet, don’t do any interviews—this is obviously going to be a big story—don’t comment about this, and in exchange, when this brouhaha dies down, you will get the show, the masters, and the format’ — because CNN technically owned not only Believer but the format, by which I mean they owned Reza Aslan goes around the world exploring religions, or my entire livelihood. So I couldn’t go around doing that for anyone else. I was told I could have all of it back if I just stayed quiet. So I had been purposely muzzled—fooled—into keeping my mouth shut.”

CNN erects barriers around CNN Center following protests a few weeks ago

by Allan, posted in CNN

Ea5PfslWAAEB-FsCNN has erected some sort of barrier fencing following the violent protests outside of CNN Center, the network’s Atlanta headquarters, roughly three weeks prior. The day after the protests, network president Jeff Zucker said in a memo to staffers, “The CNN letters still stand proud outside the building this morning, despite the damage, and will be repaired today.”

And it was.

And now, CNN has put a barrier up around the iconic letters, keeping people away.

Jeff Zucker says, more or less directly, he WILL run for mayor of NYC

by Allan, posted in CNN

mw-ht975_zucker_20191024150900_zqCNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker, who has been musing about running for mayor of New York City publicly since 2015, said in a New York Times interview on Sunday, more or less quite directly, that he will run for mayor of New York in 2021. Zucker’s contract as chairman of WarnerMedia News and Sports and president of CNN runs through 2020.

Before noting to the NYT he didn’t want his answer to cause news, Zucker said, “New York City is going to need a very strong mayor in the aftermath of this, and I always like a challenge.”

Regarding the earlier report he was considering a mayoral run, a Zucker insider said, “Politics is something [Zucker] thinks about.”

Now WarnerMedia is saying majority of CNN employees will not return to office in 2020

by Allan, posted in CNN

Just a week ago, CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker said that some staffers wouldn’t be returning to the office in September, citing the need to reconfigure officespace “to drastically reduce our footprint in all of our workspaces.”

Very few staffers at the network are expected to return to their offices this calendar year, with just around 15% returning to in-office work by Monday, The Wrap reports, citing WarnerMedia executive vice president and chief HR officer Jim Cummings and CNN president Jeff Zucker’s plan unveiled today.

For the most part, “our operations will remain work from home,” Zucker wrote, noting a few employees would return to work in September.

“When you consider physical distancing requirements, we simply cannot put the same number of people back into our workspaces that were there before the pandemic,” he cautioned. “So we need to make some tough decisions.”

“As I have said before, our operations will primarily, across both news and sports, continue to work remotely throughout the summer. Of course, there are exceptions for some of our newsgathering, programming and production people at CNN; and, on the sports side, there will likely be changes when we have a sense of league schedules in the summer months.”

Some CNN employees won’t “even return to the office in September,” Zucker says

by Allan, posted in CNN

Originally CNN Worldwide chief Jeff Zucker announced that he hoped to have 15% of the staff back by June, with the majority returning by early September.

But in a memo to staff, Zucker backpedalled some, changing his mind on just when the staffers would be returning — noting that indeed, some won’t “even return to the office in September,” citing the need to be reconfigure officespace “to drastically reduce our footprint in all of our workspaces” to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Maxi Tani reports.

At makeshift upfront, CNN’s Jeff Zucker touts CNN’s “most trusted journalists” as the “world is relying on CNN for the truth and the facts”

by Allan, posted in CNN

At WarnerMedia’s makeshift upfront, CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker touted CNN’s successful coronavirus coverage to advertisers, highlighting CNN’s “most trusted journalists and medical professionals,” mentioning Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, Wolf Blitzer and chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s story.

Dressed casually, the CNN chief reportedly said that “there’s never been a more important time for CNN. The world is relying on CNN for the truth and the facts. And we take this responsibility incredibly seriously.”

Showing just how laser-focused CNN is on this story, Gupta spoke after Zucker. “In some ways, this feels like one the most important stories I think I’ve ever covered.”

Zucker further pointed out CNN’s ratings success. “We’re seeing our highest consumption in our 40-year history.” In April, CNN saw its highest-rated month since Hurricane Katrina.

“We’ve run a global news organization primarily from home, and that will change how CNN operates in the future, and covers the news in the future. We appreciate all of your support, and we look forward to getting through this together,” Zucker concluded in his pitch.

No, CNN didn’t remove the 1993 Larry King video with Biden accuser Tara Reade’s mother

by Allan, posted in CNN

Despite the conspiracy circulating on right-wing Twitter, and featured prominently on Fox News and boosted by President Trump’s son, Trump Jr., CNN did not spike the video of former host Larry King apparently talking to Tara Reade’s mother, who would later accuse Joe Biden on sexual assault.

“Yes, hello. I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington?” Reade’s mother asked. “My daughter has just left there after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.”

King followed up: “In other words, she had a story to tell but out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it?”

And then the tweet circulated. “CNN removed the August 11, 1993 Larry King Episode from Google Play, the episode featuring a call from Tara Reade’s mother. CNN is actively colluding with the Biden campaign to cover up evidence of Biden’s sexual assault.”

Of course, CNN has no control, and indeed, no licensing relationship, with Google Play at all, and the video and story was still accessible on CNN.com.

One of CNN’s top spokesmen, Matt Dornic, threw ice-cold water on that theory pretty quickly. Responding on Twitter, he said, “This is B.S. CNN didn’t remove anything. We do not have a [distribution] deal for LKL w/ Google Play. Listings on the site are not sourced thru CNN. Click any episode, it will say ‘not available to watch.'”