CNN's Zucker Urges Hosts To Voice Opinion

CNN president Jeff Zucker has defended the network's anchors for voicing their opinions and showing emotions as 'authentic' and 'real'.

The long-time boss, 56, told The Washington Post: 'One of the things that I've tried to encourage is authenticity and being real.

'If we pretend not to be human, it's not real.' 

That came after hosts cried on air, called Donald Trump 'another crackpot on the Internet' and described the first presidential debate of 2020 a 's*** show'. 

The Daily Mail reports former CNN anchor Carol Costello said Dana Bash, the anchor who used the expletive, may well have faced disciplinary action for those words in the past. 

She told The Washington Post: 'I can't imagine that being accepted in 2001.' But she added: 'It was what anybody was thinking, so it wasn't wrong to say that.'

And for Zucker those kinds of emotions give the network a 'dynamic feel'.  

'And I'm totally comfortable with that happening on television. What people react to is authenticity and reality.'

Zucker, who announced in February that he 'expects' to leave CNN at the end of 2021 after almost a decade in charge, admits there have been times when has had to call anchors to tell them their coverage 'might have been a little too much'. 

He added:  'That’s the role of the coach. The coach is supposed to encourage you and then bring you back.

'I don’t want everybody doing the same thing all day long. Yes, you’re going to have folks who are more comfortable, folks who are more traditional, and I think that’s what gives it a dynamic feel.'