Inside the Meltdown at CNN profiles its boss, Chris Licht, and his failure to make the network's news coverage more objective and more popular with Republicans. The first goal is naive, the second is comedy, together they're hopeless, and Licht is portrayed here the human embodiment of all three qualities. If centrist pundits were briefly impressed by the effort, it died a spectacular death with the Trump Town Hall last month. Tim Alberta:
"The media has absolutely, I believe, learned its lesson," Licht said.
Sensing my surprise, he grinned.
"I really do," Licht said. "I think they know that he's playing them—at least, the people in my organization. We've had discussions about this. We know that we're getting played, so we're gonna resist it."
As a hit piece on Licht it's made stronger because the author seems sympathetic to Licht's purpose, to the ideal of news journalism as a voice from nowhere, but is more self-aware about how that's likely to serve the right-especially when it's being paid for by a right-wing billionaire.
Licht comes across as vague, indecisive, a shrinking narcissist. And for everything in the piece that shows it, what proves it is the fact he spent so long hanging around the author without realizing he was getting Janet Malcolmed.
