The head of CNN Jeff Zucker has chimed in on the mistakes he says that Brian Williams made. The former head of NBC has also said that he would live to get Jon Stewart to come over to CNN.
Zucker would love to be able to bring Jon Stewart over to CNN. This would be a no-brainer given that the Daily Show’s ratings have been much higher than any single program on CNN over the last few years by far.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.
The head of CNN said of the comic, “I’m a huge admirer of what Jon Stewart does. We’d love to have him here at CNN. Would there ever be room for him?” The answer is yes.”
Just the idea of giving a comic a news show on a news network as opposed to an entertainment channel like Comedy Central shows just how much the line between news and entertainment has been blurred in America.
At a lunch at which Zucker discussed a new CNN show with reporters he said of Williams lies that, “I haven’t said anything about what’s happening to Brian, but I will say that it’s obviously incredibly sad and disappointing to see what’s happened to Brian. He was a colleague and a friend, for many, many years, obviously. So I feel really badly for him on a very human level, because unfortunately this has obscured a lot of really fantastic work that Brian did.”
“But, what is clear is that he made some incredibly serious mistakes and I feel really badly that that’s obscured a really fine career. As far as the punishment, as far as whether he’ll ever come back, I really can’t speak to those because I don’t have all the facts. Those are investigations that are continuing and it would be inappropriate for me to talk about that, because I just don’t have all the facts. The folks at NBC will have to make those decisions and I’m sure that they will with all the information.”
On the death of 60 Minutes reporter Bob Simon Zucker commented, “There is nobody better than Bob Simon [at storytelling]. It’s a tremendous tragedy. I find it incomprehensible that he would survive everything he has survived around the world and then to go so sadly.”
