Media Critic Auletta: CNN Didn't Cover the World Under Zucker

At least one national media critic says CNN did not "cover the world" as advertised under former president Jeff Zucker.

"CNN had always talked about how we cover the world like no one else, maybe the BBC being an exception to that," The New Yorker's Ken Auletta said Sunday during an interview on CNN. "Well, they don’t do it.

"If you watch CNN regularly, there's much more domestic news on it, much less international news."

Zucker announced his resignation Wednesday after revealing that he had failed to disclose his romantic relationship with a senior network executive, a violation of corporate policy.

Former President Donald Trump said Zucker's exit meant that CNN's "carbon footprint is looking better."

"The stench of Jeff Zucker is finally leaving CNN," Trump said in a statement Friday. "The air over there, the Radical Left will be happy to hear, is being made more 'environmentally friendly.'"

The network, which has taken a strong left-wing slant since Zucker became president nine years ago, will be taken over by Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav after a merger with AT&T’s WarnerMedia, which owns CNN.

While "liberal Democrat" Zaslav and Zucker "are close friends," according to Auletta, billionaire media mogul John Malone, who holds a stake in the merger, is "conservative."

"Ted Turner considered John Malone his top investor and advocate, so he felt that John Malone was actually behind him and behind the newscast that CNN had created," Auletta told CNN’s Brian Stelter.

"Now, Malone has since criticized CNN for too much advocacy, too much commentary, too little reporting from the world."

During an interview in November on CNBC, Malone said he would "like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing."

Should CNN reporters and staffers at the left-leaning network be worried about the network's future?

"If I was at CNN and I was an employee and I loved working under Jeff Zucker for understandable reasons I would be concerned," Auletta said. "There’s no question that David Zaslav, as he said to me in November at a public forum, believes that there’s too much commentary on CNN.

"And if you watch CNN, the anchors are much more animated with opinions than they were when Ted Turner started the network back some 30 [years] ago. And so I would be a little nervous if I was at CNN, yes."

• Could CNN Be Nearing End of Its Lean to the Left After Zucker Exit?
• Discovery CEO Zaslav Sees CNN as 'The Leader in News'