Tapper Confronts Kilar, Putin's Ukraine Game Theory, and the Crisis at CNN

Happy Thursday. For all our new subscribers, this is The Daily Courant, our afternoon guide to all the latest and most provocative journalism at Puck.

Today, we lead with Dylan Byers' gripping follow-up account of the crisis inside CNN's D.C. bureau, where outgoing WarnerMedia boss Jason Kilar was angrily confronted by Jake Tapper and Kaitlan Collins, among other network stars, after Kilar suddenly and unceremoniously defenestrated CNN president Jeff Zucker. (Yes, Dylan got the audio.)

Plus, below the fold: Dylan, Matt Belloni, and Peter Hamby discuss the role that disgraced former anchor Chris Cuomo may have played in the legal drama behind Zucker's ouster, in a special episode of The Powers That Be. And Julia Ioffe returns from book leave with a chilling update on Vladimir Putin's escalating threats to invade Eastern Europe.

Inside the CNN Newsroom’s Clash with Jason Kilar

Fear, anger, profound loyalty to Jeff Zucker and full-blown resentment for Jason Kilar dominated a confidential meeting in CNN’s D.C. newsroom on the night of Zucker’s February surprise.

Just after 7 p.m. ET last night, WarnerMedia C.E.O. Jason Kilar stepped into CNN’s Washington D.C. bureau along with CNN’s newly named interim leaders Michael Bass, Amy Entelis, and Ken Jautz, and did his level best to explain to staff why he had taken the dramatic step of forcing the beloved president of CNN Worldwide, Jeff Zucker, to resign over his failure to disclose a consensual relationship with his top aide, Allison Gollust.

It did not go well. The meeting, which I obtained a recording of last night, highlights the profound sense of loyalty that CNN’s on-air talent have toward their longtime leader, despite his violation of company policy, and the anger they feel regarding the circumstances of his sudden defenestration. In the course of a more than hour-long Q&A session, three things became clear: CNN’s top staff believe that Zucker’s punishment was unnecessary; they are dubious about Kilar’s motives for the decision (and wonder if his own fraught relationship with Zucker played a role); and they are at a loss to understand how the network will function in the absence of a leader who was intimately involved in nearly every aspect of the network’s programming.

In his opening remarks, Kilar said it was a “heavy,” “sad,” “awful” and “devastating” day for the network, and sought to cast himself as an ally of Zucker whose relationship with the CNN chief dated back fifteen years to the days when Zucker was running NBCUniversal and Kilar was the founding chief executive of Hulu. That claim belies the truth: As I reported yesterday, Zucker and Kilar have been at odds with one another since Kilar was appointed C.E.O. of WarnerMedia in April 2020, and both have repeatedly tried to undermine one another over the last two years...

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