Some of CNN’s biggest liberal stars who were pushed out under previous leadership have been making their return on-air in recent weeks, marking another shift away from a mission to make the network less partisan.
It has been nearly one year since CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, canned the network’s beleaguered CEO Chris Licht, who was brought on to restore the journalistic credibility CNN had lost during the Trump era.
Among the changes Licht made were of personnel, particularly jettisoning some of the most anti-Trump voices who had helped redefine CNN as a news organization aligned with MSNBC, which has openly embraced its far-left stance. However, at least three of them have crawled their way back on CNN’s airwaves.
Jeffrey Toobin, who was CNN’s chief legal analyst, “decided” to exit CNN after 20 years in August 2022, though it was widely believed he was forced out by the Licht regime. Toobin is perhaps best known for being caught masturbating during a Zoom meeting with his New Yorker colleagues in October 2020. At the time, he was fired from the New Yorker but granted a leave of absence by CNN and was ultimately welcomed back the following year under Licht’s predecessor, Jeff Zucker.
Toobin has made a remarkable resurgence in recent weeks, making at least 20 CNN appearances, many of them discussing former President Trump’s hush money trial. He is frequently introduced to viewers as a “former federal prosecutor.”
Don Lemon, another longtime CNN star, was fired last April following several tumultuous months that included losing his solo primetime show, off-set drama on his new morning show and his controversial “past her prime” comments about Nikki Haley.
Last month, Lemon reappeared on CNN to speak out about his quashed X deal with Elon Musk on “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
In a recent interview, Lemon left the door open about officially returning to CNN.
“Look, I would never say never,” Lemon said, “Most of the people who were involved in my ousting are gone. And so it’s kind of the place that it was, you know, before I got there. So that would be interesting.”
