Love affairs, vendettas and media focus: Game of Thrones on CNN

The US Department of Justice approved last Wednesday the merger of two giants: WarnerMedia, owner of the CNN television network and the HBO platform, and Discovery.

The agreement gives free rein to the launch of CNN+, one more step in the

and a challenge for traditional media such as cable television.

Dozens of congressional Democrats, including progressives Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, had raised concerns that the merger violated antitrust law, but the green light from regulators has overpowered suspicions.

What the Department of Justice has not achieved is to resolve the numerous questions raised by the resignation of the president of CNN, Jeff Zucker, for maintaining a relationship with a co-worker, an executive of the chain.

A resignation announced when the merger was subject to scrutiny, and that many consider the tip of the iceberg of a polyhedral crisis.

That two divorced adults embark on a sentimental relationship - which was also an open secret in the company - would not be newsworthy, despite violating the corporate rules of CNN, which force its workers to declare any romance with a colleague .

That is why Zucker's resignation is interpreted in other ways, as the main point to pull to explain a tangled business and image crisis, seasoned by hard-fought power games.

A good plot for a series: love affairs, board of directors and blinding media spotlight.

Many factors fuel the groundswell at CNN.

The most apparent are the heavy debt of AT&T, the global telecommunications giant and parent company of WarnerMedia ($156.2 billion at the end of 2021);

the drop in audience of the chain of continuous information after the arrival to the presidency of Joe Biden (the mandate of Donald Trump was a mine informatively speaking);

's sweeping push

, including its growing focus on nonfiction; and, last but not least, the investigation that led to the December firing of the network's star host, the visceral Chris Cuomo.

After being provisionally suspended, the network dismissed him for having incurred a conflict of interest and violating professional ethics by advising his brother, the then governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, who had been denounced for sexual harassment by a dozen women ;

a scandal that ultimately cost the politician his job.

As the internal investigation showed, Chris Cuomo, for whom the network has not yet found a fixed replacement in the desirable prime time slot - the nine o'clock newscast - called several journalists to disqualify the women who accused his brother.

Many sources -impossible to access a direct one, silence seems in this secret case of the summary- affirm that Zucker's relationship with Allison Gollust, director of marketing for the chain, was mentioned by the lawyers of Chris Cuomo, in litigation with the chain for severance pay, in a kind of perfect

, and despite the support that Zucker showed him during the investigations into his role in his brother's scandal.

But the romantic affair of Zucker and Gollust is not enough to explain the tangled crisis of CNN and, by extension, of WarnerMedia and AT&T.

Nor the challenges it poses to a saturated industry such as

a bet like that of CNN+, starting with that of the audience: many wonder if the viewer will want to spend another dozen dollars a month on news programs or documentaries when cable television already offers them.

Another reasonable doubt is the decline of pay television itself: in the last year, some four million American households have canceled their cable subscription, according to the analysis firm MoffettNathanson.

CNN has spared no star signings for CNN+, which is scheduled to air in late March.

Actress Eva Longoria will present a program about Mexican gastronomy.

Former Fox anchor Chris Wallace - "one of the few stars with a reputation for integrity on the conservative network," underlines CNN to cure himself - will have a weekly talk show and the influential former NBA player Rex Chapman, with more of a million followers on Twitter, another of “positive news”, whatever that is.

Despite AT&T's enormous debt, CNN is not short of money to launch its

service , for which it has already hired 500 employees and enabled an entire plant at its Atlanta headquarters.

The stipend of its star presenters reaches eight million dollars a year - the possible salary of the fired Cuomo - but its pull in front of the microphone does not seem enough to encourage an audience satiated with offers.

CNN's criticism of Donald Trump's presidency turned its journalists into targets for the Republican.

Under Zucker's presidency they had full freedom to denounce threats to democracy, "sometimes showing more passion and emotion than is traditionally acceptable in a news anchor or journalist,"

underlined a few days ago .

That is to say, turning news programs into opinion pulpits, in the manner of cathodic preachers... leaning towards the Democratic side.

CNN is not alone in the adventure of expanding its offer with a digital platform.

The conservative Fox, which comfortably leads the ranking of conventional television audiences -CNN is the third, after MSNBC-, launched at the end of 2018 an offer similar to the one that is now being prepared by the rival network: a mix of documentaries, TV-style programs of life and classic faces of the network, such as Tucker Carlson, plus some successful series.

CNN will also take advantage of the pull of its stars, such as Anderson Cooper, who will have two programs, one on parenting.

Cooper and her husband were in 2020 parents of twins for a surrogacy.

The sudden departure of Zucker after nine years as president, in which he promoted the transformation of the chain, leaves behind a trail of acknowledgments -unanimous that of his pupils, whom he pampered and protected-, as many criticisms and many, too many unanswered questions.

The man who dared to sue the Trump White House for vetoing his political correspondent and who emerged triumphant from the pulse.

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