CNN’s Zucker ‘very open’ to talking to former Fox News anchor Shep Smith
CNN President Jeff Zucker said Thursday he’s “very open to talking” to Shepard Smith during the network’s Citizen conference, calling the former Fox News anchor “an immense talent.”
Smith, 55, parted ways with Fox News on Oct. 11 and won’t immediately be able to take a new job reportedly due to the parameters of his contract.
{mosads}”I think Shep’s a great journalist,” Zucker told CNN “Reliable Sources” host Brian Stelter at the network’s Citizen conference in New York on Thursday afternoon. “When he’s available, he is somebody who is very talented and I would be very open to talking to him.”
Zucker said despite Smith’s credentials as a journalist that there is “no difference” between Fox News’s news side and opinion side when asked about the two sides by Stelter.
CNN’s Jeff Zucker tells @brianstelter: “We don’t set out to be anti-Trump,” we’re just “pro-Truth” #CITIZENCNN pic.twitter.com/HOncsgq6i7
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 24, 2019
The former NBCUniversal president also argued that CNN does not seek to be an anti-Trump network.
As president of NBC, Zucker greenlighted “The Apprentice,” the popular reality show starring then-real estate mogul Donald Trump.
Trump has tweeted on dozens of occasions and has declared at rallies that CNN was “fake news” and has been overwhelmingly negative toward his administration and him.
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