New York Press Club announces Chris Licht will give keynote address at journalism conference – after catastrophic CNN tenure

Chris Licht will give a keynote address at the New York Press Club's Conference on Journalism. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

It’s like hiring Jeffrey Toobin to give a how-to on Internet privacy, or snagging Joe Biden as your debate coach. 

The CNN diaspora was in a dither yesterday after the New York Press Club announced that its Conference on Journalism would have a keynote address by Chris Licht. 

This would be the same Chris Licht whose fleeting tenure as the head of CNN was so unremittingly catastrophic that Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav, the guy who hired him away from “Late Night With Stephen Colbert” to head the news network, gave a public address personally taking responsibility for his error in judgment. 

Licht was the Chairman and CEO of CNN until June 7, 2023. Getty Images for CAA Licht will speak at the club on November 23. Getty Images

Nonetheless, the club said in a press release that Licht would give the headline talk at the Nov. 23 event “focusing on the future of legacy media.” 

While stewarding the future of one legacy media brand — which he did from 2022 to 2023 — Licht hired NBA great Charles Barkley as a news host (which went about as well as you’d imagine), moved star anchor Don Lemon from prime time to a doomed morning show then bafflingly fired him, hosted an excruciating and widely loathed town hall with Donald Trump and then — demonstrating his mastery of journalism by becoming its subject rather than its creator — gave an endless interview to the Atlantic that finally brought about his firing amid pitiful ratings. 

When we asked the press club about the pick, a rep told us: “Chris Licht was chosen because he has been a pivotal figure in the changing media landscape. We think his talk, which will be presented as an interview with a prominent journalist, will be thought-provoking. Our selection of Licht as a speaker is meant more as a vehicle for discussion than a reflection of the Press Club’s opinion of an individual.” 

When Page Six offered a former CNNer the analysis that while Licht is plainly a talented TV producer, he’s not a journalist at all, they responded: “That is 100% spot on.”