Posted on 07/27/2012 9:57:18 AM PDT by Beave Meister
CNN President Jim Walton, who has been with the company for 30 years, has announced that he’s resigning. He will remain with the network until the end of the year.
“CNN needs new thinking,” Walton wrote in a note to staff this morning. “I have interests to explore, I need to give myself time to do [them].”
See various quotes and his note after the jump…
From CNN PR: Jim Walton told the CNN organization today that he will step down as president of CNN Worldwide at the end of this year. He will continue in his current role until that time. Jim’s decision has the support and respect of Turner Broadcasting CEO Phil Kent. Phil will lead the search for Jim’s successor. Employee note from Jim Walton is below as well as statements from Phil Kent and Jeff Bewkes.
Jim Walton note to staff:
After more than 30 years at this company and nearly 10 years as the leader of this great news organization, I have decided to leave my role at CNN on December 31, 2012.
(Excerpt) Read more at mediabistro.com ...
CNN needed new thinking long before now.
The hire the same old song
I nominate Bernie Goldberg!
I’m predicting now that the new one will be an off the charts Lib.
Makes sense. Either they will have accomplished their goal with Obama retaining power, in which case America is dead, or they need a new strategy to trick us into accepting their version of reality.
I’d want to do something else after 30 years, too.
CNN beats the heck out of any other network when there’s breaking news, especially internationally.
While we may prefer FOX for talk-blabber, give Walton and CNN credit for bringing us cable news, long before FOX News even began. Remember the first Gulf war?
Hey, Jim: You're a failure. Admit it. Your company sucks at what it does and you took it there. Deal with reality.
Hire Rush as Chairman. It will be the #1 news channel in a week.
I’ll second it!
Deck chairs, Titanic, etc.
“Cnn Needs new Thinking”- Captain Obvious quote de jour...
G’night, Jim-boy.
Other interests? Translation: “I just don’t know what to do anymore with this bloody network.”
16 posts before a gratuitous “Waltons” reference? We’re slipping.
Well isn't that something.
It isn't often that someone in the business world openly denigrates themselves by admitting that they're incapable of adapting their thinking to changing times.
And yet...
I am proud of what we have accomplished together over these last 10 years – innovative programming, the development of great talent in front of and behind the cameras, expansion in digital and mobile, significant investment and expansion in international coverage, financial success and, most importantly, great and trusted journalism.
He's proud of his changes (new thinking) over the last 10 years, yet he says new leadership is needed.
Something is going on behind the scenes IMO.
Maybe the direction of travel isn't the direction he wants to go.
Is Time Warner fixing to "JC Penny" CNN?
Jim Bob Walton was running CNN? No wonder they were so lame.
The timing of this, just before the elections, makes me suspicious. Possibly a hand in this from the White House.., as suggestion? So as to encourage CNN to place a more far left leaning Lib at the helm? I don’t accept that he made this decision on his own, at this time.
Regarding your Post #18, I am not in disagreement with you. I feel the same way about many of our conservative radio show hosts.
While I understand that they are using the best assets (their voice) to get their point across, too many of them also seems to be hucksters - promoting their new book, promoting a new tea, etc.
I’m not unsympathetic to wanting these guys to make a buck. More power to them. But there are times when I’m not sure what’s comes first - shilling for a new product or advancing our cause.
I’d love it if some of these guys (Hannity, Hugh Hewitt, etc) would suddenly show up at a phone bank some night and start calling GOP voters. Now, that would be impressive and would help fire up the local volunteer base.
I woulda been here quicker, but there was a feller needin’ directions to Schulyer.
Hopefully not a Chick-fil-A franchise. /sarc
Goodnight, jimboy....
I like and admire Rush too. But I already know the problems. (thanks FR). I want to know the solutions. I wish he would DO SOMETHING besides spouting what’s wrong!
I shoulda kept reading. LOL
“CNN beats the heck out of any other network when there’s breaking news, especially internationally.”
Only MSNBC/TWC is more leftist than CNN.
“While we may prefer FOX for talk-blabber,”
Some may, but I don’t make the mistake of assuming Faux is in any way conservative.
“give Walton and CNN credit for bringing us cable news, long before FOX News even began. Remember the first Gulf war?”
Yes, I remember good ol’ Saddam getting all his military intel from CNN.
When has CNN ever been less than left wing freaks?
I also remember CNN showing us over and over all day long their leftist buddies in the middle east CELEBRATING on 9/11.
I agree. Nature tends to entropy, and I see no reason for CNN to keep from flying apart as well.
CNN has been in the dumpster for years. If the do hire some liberal moonbat who’s going to be doing the same left wing assault on America, it will be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Obama must have some really sucky internal polling.
Rat is jumping ship before the tsunami
“...CNN needs new thinking...”
Since thinking is inversely proportation to the percentage of liberals on staff, this implies that CNN needs fewer liberals on the staff.
(This helpful note provided because math is NOT a friend of liberals...as is amply demonstrated by their fiscal m*st*rb*tions.)
Oops, an Obamacretin moment.
That’s “proportion,” not “proportation.”
My bad, send me to the West Wing - a place for idiots.
I called that "Performing a public service." It was good for people to get slapped in the face about Obama's pals on the West Bank.
Yep. The pre-spin raw feed is pretty good.
Once management is awake and in the office, not so much.
“CNN beats the heck out of any other network when there’s breaking news,”
Yeah, I remember Wolf Blitzer with his breathtaking Breaking News over and over all day long that George W. Bush’s popularity polling is at a record low.
I wonder if this is about the hack and charges those running the media in England are facing?
Honestly I have no idea who this guy is.
B.O. will be available in late January.
I’m not sure I remember hearing about that.
Most of CNN’s regular viewers pre-Fox (i.e. before the late 90s) were actually right-leaning news junkies who preferred CNN as a news source because they were the least biased of the big 4 networks. But when Fox News came along CNN gradually lost this core audience to them.
Then in the late 2000s, when MSNBC decided to abandon any pretense of objectivity and all but declare itself the official Obama cheerleader network, the die hard libs switched to them and left CNN behind as well.
So who does that leave for CNN? Almost no one, apparently.
Math isn’t a friend to me either.
Translation:
Investors have decided to feed me to great whites if I don't move on. They want their investments to yield a profit after 30 years.
ANY “thinking” would have been an improvement.....
The guy's a genious.
They can have Shep!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.