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Notes on the Zucker Scandal

Jeff Zucker’s resignation has upended the calculus within CNN, the broader cable news industry, and entertainment ecosystem. Here’s what I’m hearing about how it’s going down in the newsroom, and what’s next for the network.

Jeff Zucker and Andrew Cuomo
Photo by Brad Barket/Getty
Dylan Byers
February 3, 2022

Things change fast in the media business. As of this morning, I was amassing lines of reporting about the latest upheaval at MSNBC, where Rachel Maddow is going on sabbatical and Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezisnki are actively expanding their horizons with a whole other hour of Morning Joe at 9 a.m. The leitmotif of the storyline was that MSNBC’s executive leadership was imperiled, running out of moves for how to consistently articulate an editorial strategy, and fumbling along while Jeff Zucker, the prodigious programmer, was re-centering his network and building out CNN+.