Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav supported CNN CEO Chris Licht during an investor conference Thursday as tension at the network rises over the decision to air a live Donald Trump town hall packed with his supporters.
Zaslav said Licht “is working really hard” to improve CNN’s brand and image, citing a recent YouGov poll that said trust in CNN has improved by 11 percentage points in the past year. For context, trust in Republican-leaning Fox News improved 17 points and trust in Democratic-leaning MSNBC improved 16 points in the same period. Trust in CBS, ABC and NBC all improved by more than CNN, as well.
Zaslav emphasized CNN’s desire for more balance on the network, citing a common refrain that he wants to ensure CNN isn’t an “advocacy network.”
“We need to show both sides of every issue,” Zaslav said.
Zaslav continues to be supportive of CNN’s decision to host the Trump town hall, according to a person familiar with his thinking. Trump is leading early polls to win the 2024 Republican nomination for president. Zaslav told CNBC earlier this month Trump, who continues to falsely claim he was the victim of election fraud in the 2020, should absolutely appear on CNN.
“He’s the frontrunner — he has to be on our network,” Zaslav said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We’re happy he’s coming on our network.”
Amanpour slams ‘bothsidesism’
His comments came a day after veteran CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour publicly challenged the notion of covering “both sides” of the political spectrum if both sides weren’t factual. Amanpour spoke Wednesday at Columbia Journalism School’s commencement.
“Be truthful, but not neutral,” Amanpour told the graduates. She said the phrase was “her mantra.”
“Bothsidesism is not always objectivity. It does not get you to the truth. Drawing false moral or factual equivalence is neither objective or truthful. Objectivity is our golden rule, and it is in weighing all the sides and hearing all the evidence, hearing everyone and reporting everything, but not rushing to equate them when there is no equating.”
Amanpour said she met with Licht this week to convey her disappointment with airing a Trump town hall in the format in which it happened. She said Licht told her that “the execution was lacking a little,” as CNBC reported earlier this week. Amanpour noted the live audience should not have been allowed to cheer Trump’s every sentence, calling the behavior “appalling.”
At one point, Trump called town hall host Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person.” Amanpour said she would have dropped the microphone and walked out if he’d done that to her.
Amanpour said airing a taped Trump interview would have been a better solution, as it would have allowed CNN to better fight off Trump’s “disinformation and propaganda machine.” Trump is facing multiple criminal investigations and was found liable earlier this month for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump has denied Carroll’s accusations. He was also indicted in New York for allegedly falsifying business records.
Amanpour is the first significant CNN journalist to publicly criticize Licht and Zaslav’s decision to air the town hall. Several of her colleagues jumped to support her comments on Twitter, showcasing an undercurrent of dissent within the CNN ranks.
“Speaking truth to power is a fundamental part of our job but to speak truth to the power that signs your checks? @amanpour showing everyone how it’s done,” tweeted Nima Elbagir, CNN’s chief international investigative correspondent.
CNN anchor Sara Sidner tweeted “she’s a real one” about Amanpour, which CNN correspondent Erica Hill echoed.
CNN Hong Kong anchor Kristie Lu Stout said Amanpour delivered “a masterclass in journalism.”
Falling ratings, rising discontent
Licht has inherited a CNN employee base largely put in place by former chief Jeff Zucker and his predecessors. Zucker was popular as a leader with many current staff members and led the network in a hands-on style that Licht has purposefully eschewed.
Zaslav’s mission with CNN has been to shed its “left-leaning” image to a more neutral brand, he reiterated Thursday. He touted the amount of Republicans CNN has interviewed recently in his comments Thursday.
Still, the changes aren’t helping CNN’s ratings. The network’s overall audience trailed not only Fox and MSNBC but also the much smaller conservative channel Newsmax on Tuesday in the 7 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET hours.
CNN’s profit fell below $1 billion last year, The New York Times reported, marking a six-year low. Slumping ratings won’t help its advertising revenue this year. Warner Bros. Discovery held its upfront presentation for ad buyers this week. Licht spoke at the event.
While the business struggles, Zaslav’s comments about CNN being more politically down the middle, especially when it comes to Trump, have irritated journalists who don’t equate fighting lies with partisanship.
It’s unclear whether CNN staff members’ show of discontent with Licht and Zaslav’s recent decision making will amount to anything other than public grousing.
But as the network struggles with falling ratings and millions of Americans cancelling traditional TV each year, which eat away at CNN’s revenue and profit, Zaslav may have an unwanted distraction on his hands that may only get worse as the U.S. edges closer to the 2024 presidential election.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC, MSNBC and CNBC.
WATCH: CNBC’s full interview with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav
Paxton sued Google in 2022 for allegedly unlawfully tracking and collecting the private data of users.
The attorney general said the settlement, which covers allegations in two separate lawsuits against the search engine and app giant, dwarfed all past settlements by other states with Google for similar data privacy violations.
Google’s settlement comes nearly 10 months after Paxton obtained a $1.4 billion settlement for Texas from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to resolve claims of unauthorized use of biometric data by users of those popular social media platforms.
“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law,” Paxton said in a statement on Friday.
“For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won,” said Paxton.
“This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust.”
Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said the company did not admit any wrongdoing or liability in the settlement, which involves allegations related to the Chrome browser’s incognito setting, disclosures related to location history on the Google Maps app, and biometric claims related to Google Photo.
Castaneda said Google does not have to make any changes to products in connection with the settlement and that all of the policy changes that the company made in connection with the allegations were previously announced or implemented.
“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” Castaneda said.
“We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”
Virtual care company Omada Health filed for an IPO on Friday, the latest digital health company that’s signaled its intent to hit the public markets despite a turbulent economy.
Founded in 2012, Omada offers virtual care programs to support patients with chronic conditions like prediabetes, diabetes and hypertension. The company describes its approach as a “between-visit care model” that is complementary to the broader health-care ecosystem, according to its prospectus.
Revenue increased 57% in the first quarter to $55 million, up from $35.1 million during the same period last year, the filing said. The San Francisco-based company generated $169.8 million in revenue during 2024, up 38% from $122.8 million the previous year.
Omada’s net loss narrowed to $9.4 million during its first quarter from $19 million during the same period last year. It reported a net loss of $47.1 million in 2024, compared to a $67.5 million net loss during 2023.
The IPO market has been largely dormant across the tech sector for the past three years, and within digital health, it’s been almost completely dead. After President Donald Trump announced a sweeping tariff policy that plunged U.S. markets into turmoil last month, taking a company public is an even riskier endeavor. Online lender Klarna delayed its long-anticipated IPO, as did ticket marketplace StubHub.
But Omada Health isn’t the first digital health company to file for its public market debut this year. Virtual physical therapy startup Hinge Health filed its prospectus in March, and provided an update with its first-quarter earnings on Monday, a signal to investors that it’s looking to forge ahead.
Omada contracts with employers, and the company said it works with more than 2,000 customers and supports 679,000 members as of March 31. More than 156 million Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition, so there is a significant market opportunity, according to the company’s filing.
In 2022, Omada announced a $192 million funding round that pushed its valuation above $1 billion. U.S. Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Fidelity’s FMR LLC are the largest outside shareholders in the company, each owning between 9% and 10% of the stock.
“To our prospective shareholders, thank you for learning more about Omada. I invite you join our journey,” Omada co-founder and CEO Sean Duffy said in the filing. “In front of us is a unique chance to build a promising and successful business while truly changing lives.”
Liz Reid, vice president, search, Google speaks during an event in New Delhi on December 19, 2022.
Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images
Testimony in Google‘s antitrust search remedies trial that wrapped hearings Friday shows how the company is calculating possible changes proposed by the Department of Justice.
Google head of search Liz Reid testified in court Tuesday that the company would need to divert between 1,000 and 2,000 employees, roughly 20% of Google’s search organization, to carry out some of the proposed remedies, a source with knowledge of the proceedings confirmed.
The testimony comes during the final days of the remedies trial, which will determine what penalties should be taken against Google after a judge last year ruled the company has held an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search.
The DOJ, which filed the original antitrust suit and proposed remedies, asked the judge to force Google to share its data used for generating search results, such as click data. It also asked for the company to remove the use of “compelled syndication,” which refers to the practice of making certain deals with companies to ensure its search engine remains the default choice in browsers and smartphones.
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The DOJ also proposed the company divest its Chrome browser but that was not included in Reid’s initial calculation, the source confirmed.
Reid on Tuesday said Google’s proprietary “Knowledge Graph” database, which it uses to surface search results, contains more than 500 billion facts, according to the source, and that Google has invested more than $20 billion in engineering costs and content acquisition over more than a decade.
“People ask Google questions they wouldn’t ask anyone else,” she said, according to the source.
Reid echoed Google’s argument that sharing its data would create privacy risks, the source confirmed.
Closing arguments for the search remedies trial will take place May 29th and 30th, followed by the judge’s decision expected in August.
The company faces a separate remedies trial for its advertising tech business, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 22.