CNN Is Spending 2/3rds Less Time Talking About Fox News Since Zucker’s Exit

Less than a month after Jeff Zucker resigned as president of CNN his absence is already being noticed as mentions of the network’s foe Fox News continues to drop significantly.

According to an analysis from Mediaite, on-air mentions of “Fox” fell by two-thirds since January, dropping from 100 mentions per week to just 34 mentions in the first three weeks of February following Zucker’s resignation.

“If one looks at average daily mentions, Fox was uttered roughly 13 times per day from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2, and five times per day, on average, since,” wrote Mediaite’s Colby Hall.

During Jeff Zucker’s reign, he was notorious for transforming CNN from a left-of-center straight news network into a far-left agenda-pushing propaganda outlet openly hostile to conservative (particularly pro-Trump) views. Fox News was a regular target of CNN on-air personalities, especially after Zucker called the network “state-run TV” and a “pure propaganda machine” in 2018.

Effective coverage of Fox News has always been a conundrum for CNN. During the Donald Trump administration, many opinion hosts on Fox News openly parroted the president’s political rhetoric and conspiracy theories. Some even maintained a close but informal advisory role with Trump.

Zucker saw that as a major story. He condemned Fox News as “state-run television” — a claim not that far off given the cozy relationship Trump had with, say, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and many Fox News executives, like Bill Shine, who eventually worked in the Trump White House. And Zucker’s views of CNN’s competitor permeated throughout the network, which dedicated significant coverage to Fox.

By CNN transforming itself into an attack outlet against Fox News, the network essentially promoted its competitor and repelled viewers who tuned into CNN hoping for straight news coverage.

“Fox News has successfully pulled some CNN hosts into a pro-wrestling dynamic that has hurt CNN far more than Fox,” noted Mediaite.

In January, CNN mentioned “Fox” on-air an average of 100 times per week.

But in the first three weeks of February, the average number of “Fox” mentions dwindled by two-thirds down to 34. (Column by @colbyhall) https://t.co/7s5fjjDupw

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) February 21, 2022

Dropping mentions of Fox News could signify a potential change in culture at CNN. According to Ted Turner’s biographer Porter Bibb, the CNN founder reportedly despises the direction that Zucker took the network.

“I have not spoken to him [recently], because candidly he cannot really carry on a conversation. His brain is starting to go,” Bibb said on The Angler. “But he’s been adamantly [against] what Zucker did with CNN, turning it into an opinion network, to compete with Fox and losing the concept of hard news 24/7 was wrong.”

Jeff Zucker resigned from CNN earlier this month for failing to disclose a romantic relationship he had with one of his subordinates, Allison Gollust, which violated the company’s code of conduct.