Media

Tucker Carlson Says CNN Is ‘Collapsing’ Despite Licht’s Changes To The Network

[Screenshot/YouTube/The Tulsi Gabbard Show]

Nicole Silverio Media Reporter
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Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson said in a podcast episode released Tuesday that CNN is “collapsing” amid president Chris Licht’s attempts to make changes to the network.

Licht, who took over the role in May, has been forced to lay off a significant portion of the network’s reporters and paid contributors due to a drop in profitability and ratings throughout 2022. Carlson, who worked as a CNN host from 2000-2005, expressed a pessimistic vision for the network, saying that the Licht’s housekeeping changes have failed.

“I don’t think it gets fixed, I think it dies,” Carlson told former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard on her podcast. “I worked at CNN for maybe nine years, and so I knew CNN well, I hosted a show there for a long time. CNN has changed a lot, now they’re trying to change again and become more what it was like when I worked there.”

It’s not working,” Carlson continued. “Nobody watches and it’s collapsing. Now they’re laying off a huge percentage of the staff right now, I feel sorry for those people. But it’s dying.”

The Daily Caller co-founder pointed to “deeply honest” figures in the “alternative media,” who he said had been “rewarded” by the public during the corporate media’s downfall. He predicted that Gabbard, who recently began hosting her podcast, “The Tulsi Gabbard Show,” will eventually have a larger audience than MSNBC. (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Has More Democratic Viewers In Key Age Range Than CNN Or MSNBC) 

“Who’s exploding? Well, alternative media is no longer that alternative,” he said. “Matt Taibbi on Substack has a much bigger audience than primetime CNN. Glenn Greenwald on Rumble, someone I despised twenty years ago … now Glenn Greenwald is one of the people in media I respect most. I think he’s so honest … It’s so interesting, the people who are emerging as stars — Russell Brand, who last time I checked was kind of a comedian or actor, I’m not a big movie guy so I wasn’t that familiar with him — you watch a Russell Brand video, on YouTube or now Rumble, and now you’re like, ‘This guy is so much smarter than anybody.'”

“The old things are dying, but new things are taking their place, and they’re better things in my opinion,” Carlson concluded.

The corporate media has witnessed a major downward spiral in the final months of 2022, mainly due to economic issues, leading to devastating changes and layoffs. Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in the U.S., initiated another round of layoffs in the first week of December by cutting roughly six percent of its division staff, amounting to nearly 200 layoffs due to budgetary concerns, Poynter reported.

NPR cut its budget by $10 million and stopped hiring new staff due to a $20 million decline in sponsorship revenue, and the Washington Post eliminated its stand-alone Sunday magazine, citing “economic headwinds.”