Nixing ‘top talent’: CNN survival mode includes laying off hundreds, including network stars

CNN, the network started by Ted Turner, an activist for leftist ideology before it was a thing across America, is looking to lay off hundreds of employees, possibly including some stars, following President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide election victory over Kamala Harris.

CNN has leaned left for years, and in the recent times with Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House, has moved far into that agenda.

Now, it may become part of what one anonymous television executive told NYMag just days ago, when he said, “If half the country has decided that Trump is qualified to be president, that means they’re not reading any of this media, and we’ve lost this audience completely. A Trump victory means mainstream media is dead in its current form.”

It is a report in the Gateway Pundit that explained, “Top stars at fake news CNN are on the chop as the network mulls firing hundreds after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.”

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer

The report cited Nielsen ratings for CNN, and also MSNBC, that revealed the networks’ audiences have vanished. They’re down by 40% or more.

“Insiders told Puck the new round of firings will likely see on-air talent like them affected, as the network’s new CEO looks to free up finances amid waning ratings,” the Gateway Pundit said, citing Puck News.

It was the Daily Mail that explained, “CNN is reportedly set to nix some of its top talent in a round of post-election layoffs. The rumblings, first reported by Puck News, come as high-paid personalities like Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer were reportedly recently denied raises.”

Those personalities are getting millions now, and CNN star Anderson Cooper takes home “an annual $20 million.”

It’s following a decade or more of legacy media choosing to adopt one political position and support one political ideology rather than reporting neutrally on issues and candidates.

That media attitude saw publications and broadcast outlets both having a party boosting the “Russia collusion” stories during President Trump’s first campaign, claims that were fabricated from opposition research funded by Trump’s opponent, twice-failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Joe Biden participates in an episode of Anderson Cooper's podcast 'All There Is,' Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in the White House Library. (Official White House photo by Adam Schultz)
Joe Biden participates in an episode of Anderson Cooper’s podcast ‘All There Is,’ Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in the White House Library. (Official White House photo by Adam Schultz)

Then the media plunged head first into ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s campaign to blame Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, protest-turned-riot at the Capitol, even though he sent his supporters to protest “peacefully.”

The media also played a huge role in trying to build public sentiment against Trump by the hours of reports on Democrats’ lawfare cases against Trump heading into the 2024 election.

WND previously reported how the media has acted as part of Democrats’ campaigns back to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

It was Elle Purnell, the elections editor at the Federalist, whose work also has appeared in Fox Business, Real Clear Politics and many other publications, who pointed out that television executive’s conclusion.

CNN's Jim Acosta (Video screenshot)
CNN’s Jim Acosta

It was just part of the reaction exhibited by media personalities when Trump won.

Purnell’s analysis detailed how while Kamala lost, the “biggest loser is the corporate media industrial complex” in the 2024 results.

“Her media shills are nursing wounds that will take far longer to recover from,” she explained.

CNN’s Jake Tapper exclaimed “holy smokes” when he realized the depth of the Harris failure.

Jake Tapper of CNN (Video screenshot)
Jake Tapper of CNN

MSNBC’s Joy Reid now has started calling the entire state of Florida “fascist” for voting for Trump.

One CNN panel was “stunned into silence,” according to published reports, by the results.

Purnell noted, “Since the last presidential election, the media have screeched incessantly about Trump ‘inciting an insurrection’ at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They made documentaries comparing Trump to the Ku Klux Klan. They portrayed Trump as the ringleader of a terrorist attack and not as a president who gave a speech and urged his supporters to protest peacefully.”

The problem is, she said, that Americans “didn’t buy it.”

Now the public apparently is turning off some of the purveyors.

 

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.


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