Jeff Zucker reportedly compared his firing from CNN to a gunshot wound: ‘I gave them a gun, and they shot me with it’

• Jeff Zucker compared his firing from CNN to a gunshot wound, according to a New York Times report.
• Zucker was ousted over his failure to disclose a consensual relationship with a colleague.
• The former CNN boss has been critical of his embattled successor, CNN CEO Chris Licht.

Jeff Zucker compared his firing from CNN to a gunshot wound, according to a New York Times report — in part a self-inflicted one.

Speaking to a group of students at Yale University during a seminar on media leadership in April, he said he believed leaders at WarnerMedia, CNN’s parent company at the time, used his relationship with a colleague as a pretext for his February 2022 ouster.

By failing to disclose his relationship with CNN executive Allison Gollust when it first began, he had handed his bosses a weapon, he told the room, according to three people familiar with his comments who spoke to the Times.

“I gave them a gun, and they shot me with it,” Zucker reportedly said.

The report on Zucker’s bitterness over his firing, which also cites his months of criticism of his successor, Chris Licht, comes as a new profile of Licht by the Atlantic Monthly revealed a CNN newsroom in crisis, with journalists at the network expressing mistrust and concern about their CEO’s leadership. Top media leaders previously told Insider they were shocked by some of Licht’s comments and by decisions like letting the Atlantic’s Tim Alberta sit in during his workout with a trainer.

Zucker was an immensely popular leader at CNN, and his firing was a staggering shock to its newsroom and the media industry. The precipitating event was his disclosure of his relationship with Gollust, the former CNN communications chief who reported to him. “I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong,” he wrote in a statement at the time.

But two people familiar with Zucker’s exit told the Times that an investigation also found the CNN president had violated network standards by taking part in advising Andrew Cuomo, then the governor of New York, as he faced allegations of sexual harassment. Zucker’s spokesperson, Risa Heller, told the Times “Mr. Zucker never advised Andrew Cuomo, directly or indirectly.” Zucker did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment ahead of publication.

Heller also told the Times, “It is wholly unsurprising that Jeff Zucker, the architect of CNN’s unprecedented success, would have deep misgivings about the direction the network has taken since he left.”

Zucker’s ouster came two months before Discovery’s acquisition of WarnerMedia, announced in early 2021, was completed. David Zaslav, the CEO of merged entity Warner Bros. Discovery, announced Licht’s appointment to lead the network a few weeks after Zucker’s exit.

The Times reported that Zucker previously discussed a spinout of CNN with Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective. After conversations in late 2020, he referred Emerson to WarnerMedia parent AT&T, but a deal never materialized.

A spokesperson for WBD did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment ahead of publication. A CNN spokesperson declined to comment.

Licht and Zucker met a few months after Zucker’s firing, over a lunch in the Hamptons arranged by other media stakeholders, the Times reported. The meeting was meant to create a rapprochement, but sources told the Times that Zucker complained afterwards about Licht’s disinterest in his advice.

Under Licht, CNN has seen plunging ratings and talent dramas — including the April firing of network veteran Don Lemon, whom Licht had tapped to coanchor the network’s new morning show. A CNN presidential town hall with Donald Trump in May drew 3.3 million viewers but also elicited a barrage of criticism from inside and outside the organization.

A WBD spokesman gave the Times a statement affirming its support for Licht’s leadership and strategy. Zaslav has repeatedly defended Licht’s mission to offer journalism based on “absolute truth,” as Licht described it to the Atlantic. Licht on Thursday appointed Zaslav’s longtime communications consigliere, David Leavy, as chief operating officer at CNN. The move is widely seen as an effort to right the ship at the network.