General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLooking for a link - CNN executives meet with Newt Gingrich
I'm having trouble googling this, but I could swear that back in the late 90s or early 2000s, CNN executives held a meeting with Newt Gingrich and other top Republicans on what they could do to win back Republican viewers that defected to Fox News in the late 1990s with the Clinton impeachment. Maybe it was a little later than early 2000s?
However, I'm not able to find the link anymore
Just wanted to show that CNN has been trying for a long time to win back Republican viewers and it's not something new with Chris Licht.
Any help?
Thanks
Lovie777
(12,327 posts)very "partisan" indeed.
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)I thought it was late 90s/early 2000s after the first wave of Republicans moved over to Fox News - CNN was trying to figure out how to win them back to CNN...
hlthe2b
(102,359 posts)I'd suspect he did similar when he was aligned with Joe Scab at MSNBC years ago as Keith Olberman claims he instigated moves to keep many Libs off shows like his own and Rachel's back then.
It may not be only Licht, but he is clearly the CNN monster that is going to lead to their destruction. Hyperbole? I don't think so. and
Lovie777
(12,327 posts)is.................................................................
Try to be more honest, truthful, forthcoming and compassionate. Care more for the well being of the American citizenship no matter the economic status is. Respect group's different religion beliefs, civil rights, voting rights, and women rights.
Stop the lying and the horrid conspiracies, i.e. woke, CRT. Respect people's rights to love who they want. Respect that all people are different in their own ways, sexually, intelligent.
That is freedom. That is democracy.
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)I understand that Licht met with GOP leaders, but I am almost certain they did similar years back - before Glenn Beck & a few other right-wingers made their CNN debuts
targetpractice
(4,919 posts)Great stuff in here about demographic shifts, cord cutting, and how CNN was a deer caught in the headlights. Let me know what you think...
Link to tweet
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)thanks for steering me to it
bullimiami
(13,103 posts)Their best bet would have been a return to hard news.
They could have staked out an island of their own that probably would not ever be a top rater but would be solid.
Donkees
(31,453 posts)Mr. Gingrich gleefully criticized the media elite as a candidate, but now he is unquestionably a member. Yes, he agreed. And I hope to move it to the right.
Eight years after the original Crossfire was canceled, its revival is a bet by CNN that there is an audience for an evenly matched, left-right debate show five times a week, in contrast to the partisan conformity that prevails at other cable outlets.
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/business/media/gingrich-will-be-back-in-the-crossfire-on-cnn.html
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)but, I could swear it was before that - around the time Beck went to CNN Headline News and they brought in some other GOP talking heads/commentators
blogslug
(38,016 posts)By Karen Tumulty Monday, Jan. 23, 1995
ON THE AFTERNOON THAT MEDIA BARON RUPERT MURDOCH paid his visit to the Speaker-to-be, Newt Gingrich's one-room Capitol office was in chaos. Extra telephone lines were being installed, and aides were camping out on a floor littered with phone messages. Gingrich, arriving late, waved his hand at the mess and invited Murdoch and two of his lobbyists to an ornate reception room down the hall. There, as caterers set up for a Democratic dinner, the two sat on a bench and talked for 10 to 15 minutes. Their chat was mostly about the election that had swept the Republicans into power three weeks earlier, their aides told TIME, but drifted into the subject of the TV business.
"It was the most insignificant meeting in the history of the world," says Murdoch lobbyist Preston Padden, who had arranged the Nov. 28 chat. Indeed it might have been, except that a few weeks later, Murdoch's publishing house HarperCollins agreed to give Gingrich a $4.5 million advance to write two books. In the ensuing controversy, Gingrich decided to give up all but $1 of the advance and collect only royalties. However, the disclosure last week that Murdoch and Gingrich had met in person reignited criticism of the Speaker's book deal, for which he could still earn millions of dollars while in office.
For his part, Murdoch has vital interests at stake in Washington -- not the $ least of which is a spat with NBC, a rival of the mogul's Fox network. NBC has complained to government regulators that Murdoch's control of Fox, which is owned by his Australia-based company, violates rules on foreign ownership of TV stations. Padden told TIME he was the one who raised the issue with Gingrich: "Right at the end, I interjected that NBC was trashing us all over Capitol Hill, and it was just sour grapes because we were hurting them in the marketplace."
and
archive link from the NYT: https://archive.ph/THHcL
By Edmund L. Andrews
July 23, 1995
A WEEK from Tuesday, Rupert Murdoch is scheduled to appear before the House ethics committee, where he will be grilled by Democrats about his company's lucrative book deal with the Republican House Speaker, Newt Gingrich. Over on the House floor that week, perhaps even that same day, Republican lawmakers will be trying to push through a major telecommunications bill that would, among other things, let the media baron buy still more television stations and newspapers in the United States.
In one sense, this is all in a week's notoriety for Mr. Murdoch -- a man fiercely admired by some as a brilliant entrepreneur and just as fiercely reviled by others as a harsh and domineering mogul. But the simple fact of this double-barreled, center-stage presence in Congress also represents a new phase in a remarkable career: After years as an outsider in the capital's whirl of money and politics, Mr. Murdoch has come to Washington.
It's not that he has become an avid habitue of the capital's dinner-party circuit, the latest darling of the conservative establishment. Still, in his characteristically aloof way, Mr. Murdoch and his Australia-based company, the News Corporation, have become increasingly visible, and influential, in this new Republican world.
"News Corporation is dramatically more active here than it was a few years ago," said Tim Boggs, Time Warner's top lobbyist in Washington. "A lot of it reflects the growing complexity of the company and its business plan, with interests in so many different areas."
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)Good history. However, a few years later when CNN started tanking because Republicans defected, en masse, to their Fox News safe space, there was some sort of meeting between CNN executives & GOP leaders that I think was led by Newt Gingrich. I'm almost positive that it happened. Maybe it wasn't late 1990s, but it could have been 2001-2005 or around there. But, I remember that not long after, CNN and CNN Headline News added some notably conservative talking heads on some of their shows.
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,554 posts)ForgedCrank
(1,782 posts)in deep doo already. Their viewership numbers simply wouldn't stop shrinking because they kept doubling down on the bile, and spent less and less time actually reporting news.
This appears to be their last ditch hail mary before they folded under completely. They are looking at the Fox model and thinking they can skim enough of it to stay alive. The reality is, they just needed to drop all the bullshit and start doing honest news again.