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Well, so much for that idea.
CNN has gone stealth in disbanding its race and equality team of three reporters, according to a newsletter written by journalist Phil Lewis, reported the New York Post.
The unit was created by former CNN president Jeff Zucker following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, but one of the team’s journalists was fired while the other two were reassigned to other departments as part of the network’s major restructuring.
A network spokesperson initially said the unit wasn’t disbanded before confirming to Lewis it no longer exists.
“For all intents and purposes, the team is not a team anymore,” the spokesperson said.
“They’re assigned to different areas so that (their) perspective and work is brought into all of our types of programming. It’s not a unit in the way it was before, but (race and equality) is very much still their focus.”
CNN’s restructuring last week included getting rid of 100 staffers with the network’s new boss, Mark Thompson, saying nearly 3% of the workforce would be gone.
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Included in those cuts were media critic Brian Lowry and senior tech writer Samantha Murphy Kelly
CNN is also introducing its first subscription product for CNN.com with Thompson saying those offerings will be “want-to-use” content produced by the network’s lifestyle journalists.
The Post had asked CNN for comment.