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NewJeffCT

(56,828 posts)
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 09:19 AM Sep 2022

Looking for a link - CNN executives meet with Newt Gingrich

I'm having trouble googling this, but I could swear that back in the late 90s or early 2000s, CNN executives held a meeting with Newt Gingrich and other top Republicans on what they could do to win back Republican viewers that defected to Fox News in the late 1990s with the Clinton impeachment. Maybe it was a little later than early 2000s?

However, I'm not able to find the link anymore

Just wanted to show that CNN has been trying for a long time to win back Republican viewers and it's not something new with Chris Licht.

Any help?

Thanks

14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Looking for a link - CNN executives meet with Newt Gingrich (Original Post) NewJeffCT Sep 2022 OP
All meetings were with Republicans. . . . Lovie777 Sep 2022 #1
I was thinking much earlier than recently with Chris Licht NewJeffCT Sep 2022 #10
The new honcho for CNN, Chris Licht did meet with Congressional R's to beg their return hlthe2b Sep 2022 #2
Which majority of Republicans seems to ignore, maybe ..... Lovie777 Sep 2022 #3
thanks, but NewJeffCT Sep 2022 #7
Read this (long but great) Twitter thread about the CNN history you seek... targetpractice Sep 2022 #4
good thread NewJeffCT Sep 2022 #9
CNN is dead. faux licht is not a ratings improver. bullimiami Sep 2022 #5
Was it about CNN's revival of Crossfire with Newt as host? (2013) Donkees Sep 2022 #6
thank you NewJeffCT Sep 2022 #8
Just adding some ancient history to this thread blogslug Sep 2022 #11
Thanks NewJeffCT Sep 2022 #12
CNN made a real BAD Decision... LetMyPeopleVote Sep 2022 #13
CNN was ForgedCrank Sep 2022 #14

NewJeffCT

(56,828 posts)
10. I was thinking much earlier than recently with Chris Licht
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 06:42 PM
Sep 2022

I thought it was late 90s/early 2000s after the first wave of Republicans moved over to Fox News - CNN was trying to figure out how to win them back to CNN...

hlthe2b

(102,283 posts)
2. The new honcho for CNN, Chris Licht did meet with Congressional R's to beg their return
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 09:23 AM
Sep 2022
https://www.axios.com/2022/07/21/cnn-boss-licht-capitol-hill-congress

I'd suspect he did similar when he was aligned with Joe Scab at MSNBC years ago as Keith Olberman claims he instigated moves to keep many Libs off shows like his own and Rachel's back then.

It may not be only Licht, but he is clearly the CNN monster that is going to lead to their destruction. Hyperbole? I don't think so. and

Lovie777

(12,272 posts)
3. Which majority of Republicans seems to ignore, maybe .....
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 09:40 AM
Sep 2022

is.................................................................

Try to be more honest, truthful, forthcoming and compassionate. Care more for the well being of the American citizenship no matter the economic status is. Respect group's different religion beliefs, civil rights, voting rights, and women rights.

Stop the lying and the horrid conspiracies, i.e. woke, CRT. Respect people's rights to love who they want. Respect that all people are different in their own ways, sexually, intelligent.

That is freedom. That is democracy.

NewJeffCT

(56,828 posts)
7. thanks, but
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 10:19 AM
Sep 2022

I understand that Licht met with GOP leaders, but I am almost certain they did similar years back - before Glenn Beck & a few other right-wingers made their CNN debuts

targetpractice

(4,919 posts)
4. Read this (long but great) Twitter thread about the CNN history you seek...
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 09:40 AM
Sep 2022

Great stuff in here about demographic shifts, cord cutting, and how CNN was a deer caught in the headlights. Let me know what you think...


bullimiami

(13,095 posts)
5. CNN is dead. faux licht is not a ratings improver.
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 09:43 AM
Sep 2022

Their best bet would have been a return to hard news.

They could have staked out an island of their own that probably would not ever be a top rater but would be solid.

Donkees

(31,409 posts)
6. Was it about CNN's revival of Crossfire with Newt as host? (2013)
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 10:04 AM
Sep 2022
The appointment will ensure that he remains the most prominent Republican from the presidential class of 2012 to retain influence in the national conversation.

Mr. Gingrich gleefully criticized “the media elite” as a candidate, but now he is unquestionably a member. “Yes,” he agreed. “And I hope to move it to the right.”

Eight years after the original “Crossfire” was canceled, its revival is a bet by CNN that there is an audience for an evenly matched, left-right debate show five times a week, in contrast to the partisan conformity that prevails at other cable outlets.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/business/media/gingrich-will-be-back-in-the-crossfire-on-cnn.html


NewJeffCT

(56,828 posts)
8. thank you
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 11:06 AM
Sep 2022

but, I could swear it was before that - around the time Beck went to CNN Headline News and they brought in some other GOP talking heads/commentators

blogslug

(38,001 posts)
11. Just adding some ancient history to this thread
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 07:01 PM
Sep 2022
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,982280,00.html

When Rupert Met Newt
By Karen Tumulty Monday, Jan. 23, 1995

ON THE AFTERNOON THAT MEDIA BARON RUPERT MURDOCH paid his visit to the Speaker-to-be, Newt Gingrich's one-room Capitol office was in chaos. Extra telephone lines were being installed, and aides were camping out on a floor littered with phone messages. Gingrich, arriving late, waved his hand at the mess and invited Murdoch and two of his lobbyists to an ornate reception room down the hall. There, as caterers set up for a Democratic dinner, the two sat on a bench and talked for 10 to 15 minutes. Their chat was mostly about the election that had swept the Republicans into power three weeks earlier, their aides told TIME, but drifted into the subject of the TV business.

"It was the most insignificant meeting in the history of the world," says Murdoch lobbyist Preston Padden, who had arranged the Nov. 28 chat. Indeed it might have been, except that a few weeks later, Murdoch's publishing house HarperCollins agreed to give Gingrich a $4.5 million advance to write two books. In the ensuing controversy, Gingrich decided to give up all but $1 of the advance and collect only royalties. However, the disclosure last week that Murdoch and Gingrich had met in person reignited criticism of the Speaker's book deal, for which he could still earn millions of dollars while in office.

For his part, Murdoch has vital interests at stake in Washington -- not the $ least of which is a spat with NBC, a rival of the mogul's Fox network. NBC has complained to government regulators that Murdoch's control of Fox, which is owned by his Australia-based company, violates rules on foreign ownership of TV stations. Padden told TIME he was the one who raised the issue with Gingrich: "Right at the end, I interjected that NBC was trashing us all over Capitol Hill, and it was just sour grapes because we were hurting them in the marketplace."


and

archive link from the NYT: https://archive.ph/THHcL

Mr. Murdoch Goes To Washington

By Edmund L. Andrews
July 23, 1995

A WEEK from Tuesday, Rupert Murdoch is scheduled to appear before the House ethics committee, where he will be grilled by Democrats about his company's lucrative book deal with the Republican House Speaker, Newt Gingrich. Over on the House floor that week, perhaps even that same day, Republican lawmakers will be trying to push through a major telecommunications bill that would, among other things, let the media baron buy still more television stations and newspapers in the United States.

In one sense, this is all in a week's notoriety for Mr. Murdoch -- a man fiercely admired by some as a brilliant entrepreneur and just as fiercely reviled by others as a harsh and domineering mogul. But the simple fact of this double-barreled, center-stage presence in Congress also represents a new phase in a remarkable career: After years as an outsider in the capital's whirl of money and politics, Mr. Murdoch has come to Washington.

It's not that he has become an avid habitue of the capital's dinner-party circuit, the latest darling of the conservative establishment. Still, in his characteristically aloof way, Mr. Murdoch and his Australia-based company, the News Corporation, have become increasingly visible, and influential, in this new Republican world.

"News Corporation is dramatically more active here than it was a few years ago," said Tim Boggs, Time Warner's top lobbyist in Washington. "A lot of it reflects the growing complexity of the company and its business plan, with interests in so many different areas."


NewJeffCT

(56,828 posts)
12. Thanks
Sun Sep 4, 2022, 09:46 PM
Sep 2022

Good history. However, a few years later when CNN started tanking because Republicans defected, en masse, to their Fox News safe space, there was some sort of meeting between CNN executives & GOP leaders that I think was led by Newt Gingrich. I'm almost positive that it happened. Maybe it wasn't late 1990s, but it could have been 2001-2005 or around there. But, I remember that not long after, CNN and CNN Headline News added some notably conservative talking heads on some of their shows.

ForgedCrank

(1,782 posts)
14. CNN was
Mon Sep 5, 2022, 02:05 AM
Sep 2022

in deep doo already. Their viewership numbers simply wouldn't stop shrinking because they kept doubling down on the bile, and spent less and less time actually reporting news.
This appears to be their last ditch hail mary before they folded under completely. They are looking at the Fox model and thinking they can skim enough of it to stay alive. The reality is, they just needed to drop all the bullshit and start doing honest news again.

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