From WSJ.com (requires log-in): CNN’s managing editor, Mark Whitaker, is stepping down amid a flurry of changes in both staff and programming, instituted by the news channel’s new president, Jeff Zucker.
Aside from confirming Whitaker’s departure, CNN said Tuesday that it had hired Chris Cuomo for a “major role in a new CNN morning show,” expected to be launched this spring. He is the third reporter that Zucker has poached from ABC News or its cable sibling, ESPN, since coming on board. ABC and ESPN are both owned by the Walt Disney Co.
Soledad O’Brien, who anchors CNN’s current low-rated morning show, will remain at CNN and is in discussion about her future role, according to a CNN spokeswoman.
CNN is also overhauling its lineup of political pundits, with the departure of be the husband-and-wife team of political commentators, James Carville and Mary Matalin, CNN confirmed. Conservative commentator Erick Erickson also confirmed on his blog that he was also moving on from CNN.
Whitaker, a former Newsweek editor and NBC News executive who had been at CNN since 2011, was regarded as a champion of international reporting.
Under Whitaker, there was a belief that CNN should differentiate itself from the cable news pack by focusing on the one thing it could do that its rivals couldn’t: deliver hard news, instantly, from anywhere in the world.
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