Chris Licht, CNN’s new boss, has added a “Breaking News” guideline to its stylebook from today to address the overuse of the banner of breaking news across its network.
David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO, and Chris Licht have prioritized dialing back on partisan programming in favor of traditional journalism in favor of CNN.
In a press note, he has said that they are truth-tellers, focused on informing, not alarming their viewers. He added that they have already started using far less of the ‘Breaking News’ banner across their programming.
Licht said he got feedback from people both outside and inside the organization about the network overusing the “Breaking News” banner.
He added that the relentless use of the ‘Breaking News’ banner for every news on every network has reduced the impact on the audience about the real ‘Breaking News.’ He said that ‘Breaking News’ means something BIG is happening, which is no more the case as every news is being termed as BREAKING.
Licht said that the tenor of their voice holistically has to reflect their progressive commentary. He added that he will ensure they are relevant, vital, and respected – and how they show up for their audiences, in every story, in every part of the country, and around the world, matters.
