Cal Thomas: Why CNN’s president Chris Licht got canceled by the left

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 15th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next: media bias.

Before he worked for WORLD, Cal Thomas spent decades working at mainstream media outlets like NBC, FOX, and USA Today. He says too many media companies claim to be fair or objective while doubling down on their blindspots.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Last Wednesday, CNN fired its Chairman and CEO, Christ Licht. Before that name fades into a Google search, it is important to reflect on what Licht tried to do and why it was equivalent to offering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a corpse.

A lengthy Atlantic magazine interview seemed to be the basis for Licht’s dismissal. In it, Licht told writer Tim Alberta he sees newsrooms obsessing over various kinds of diversity, but not the kind he thinks would help restore public confidence in news reporting: “A Black person, a brown person, and an Asian woman that all graduated from Harvard is not diversity.” After his firing, an insider at CNN told FOX News Digital, “He got cancel- cultured because he wanted to level the ideological playing field.”

On June 9, David Remnick of The New Yorker released a podcast interview of New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger. When asked about the state of modern journalism, Sulzberger replied: “Should the role of journalists be to push for a certain cause or party or group or ideology. … Or should the role of journalists be to independently follow the truth and try to arm the public with the facts and the context and the understanding it needs for this giant, diverse democracy to come together and self-govern?”

Monday’s New York Times serves as one of many examples of the opposite of presenting facts and allowing the public to make up their own minds. On the front page of the digital edition nearly every opinion column, including the lead editorial, is anti-Trump or anti-DeSantis. One headline is, “If the Supreme Court abolished Affirmative Action Here’s What Women Need to Do.” Yes, opinion columns are just that, but where is the diversity of opinion? There hasn’t been a consistent conservative at the Times since the late William Safire.

The Times, and much of broadcast and cable reporting on culture – from abortion, to climate, to gender – assumes there is only one view and opposing views are to be ignored or ridiculed. It is the same with the economy. Any politician who wants to cut spending and reduce the size and reach of government is branded as uncaring about the poor and children.

Sulzberger and his colleagues appear to read and watch only those things that reinforce their views. (Many conservatives do the same.) Why won’t this influential publication include conservative columnists in the paper, other than the rare guest columnist? Does Sulzberger read the Washington Times? Does he ever watch Fox News or consult The Heritage Foundation to gauge the thinking of some conservatives and Christians? Has he spoken with pro-life people, including women who have had abortions and regret them? Has he met poor people who want to get their children out of failed public schools, but are kept from doing so by Democratic politicians in New York?

Journalism is in trouble, largely of its own making. The days of fairness seem to have gone with the wind to the detriment of journalism and harm to the country. I think that is the point Chris Licht was attempting to make at CNN, a once credible news organization. That it cost him his job makes my point.

I’m Cal Thomas.

REICHARD: As a follow up to Cal’s commentary, it’s worth noting that at WORLD, we don’t claim to avoid all bias. We do strive for Biblical objectivity–to be clear where God is clear and charitable where He is not. Our executive editor Paul Butler put it this way in a January commentary.

BUTLER: So, we acknowledge that the Bible should direct what we cover, how we cover, and why we cover stories. We do our best to report all aspects of the news. But we do so from a distinctive worldview. We don’t cover the news to chronicle the glory or folly of man. We cover the news because the earth is the Lord’s and all that it contains.

BROWN: Secular outlets can’t reach that high calling. We can’t either, without God’s help. So, would you pray for us in that area? Thank you so much.

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