After Calling It a Crazy Rumor, CNN Just Laid off Most of Its Health News Division

A few weeks back, CNN bought out around one hundred employees. This came on the heels of rumors of major layoffs coming to CNN. At the time, even though it was obvious why those employees were being bought out (i.e. a precursor to forced layoffs), the liberal news network got very defensive about people suggesting they were having issues.

CNN’s Brian Stelter did what he always does, which is to play the role of Baghdad Bob for Mark Zucker.

There’s a rumor making the rounds today about big impending layoffs at CNN. A CNN spokeswoman is knocking it down on the record: “No layoffs.” There WERE voluntary buyouts throughout the organization, and about 100 people opted for it.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 6, 2019

As I wrote at the time, Stelter just couldn’t grasp what had happened, or better yet, he was just being dishonest about it.

You see Brian, companies don’t offer buyouts if they aren’t looking to cull their staffs. In fact, buyouts are the normal first step in the corporate world when it comes to layoffs. You give people a chance to voluntarily leave a sinking ship. If at the end of that there’s still too much dead weight, the involuntarily buyouts begin, i.e. those are called layoffs. The net result is the same and the purpose is the same.

Well, the layoffs continued as CNN has now gotten rid of almost its entire health coverage department.

A significant portion of CNN’s staff that covers health is being laid off, which comes just days after CNN denied rumors that mass layoffs were coming to the far-left network.

“Specific details were not yet known, but a source told Fox News that ‘basically the whole division’ will lose their jobs,” Fox New’s Brian Flood reported. “CNN did not respond to multiple requests for comment.”

Flood noted that TVNewser, a media reporting website founded by CNN propagandist Brian Stelter, magically got confirmation on Friday — right before the weekend when the news cycle usually dies — that CNN was, in fact, laying off a lot of its employees.

Stelter is already hard at work spinning this latest news, not releasing it until Friday afternoon and using his propaganda site (TVNewser) to host a CNN spokeswoman’s claims that the latest round of layoffs isn’t a big deal.

A CNN spokesperson told TVNewser: “As part of the normal course of business, our newsgathering team made a small restructure earlier this week that ultimately impacts 6-7 employees within CNN’s Health Unit.”

Given the nonsense they fed the public just three weeks ago, claiming that any rumor of layoffs was “crazy,” does anyone really believe what they are saying now? Didn’t think so.

This is yet another example in a pattern of moves by CNN that shows their collapsing ratings are effecting matters. They can keep denying it, but when a network is drawing less than 200,000 people in the key demo in prime time, that means the money isn’t flowing like it used to.

I covered the latest numbers just two days ago.

It’s hard to describe how awful getting only 194,000 in the key demo is. Reruns of “My 600lb Life” on TLC compete for more share of the market than that. The Food Network routinely beats that number in head to head comparisons. It’s objectively awful.

CNN deserves everything it’s getting right now. They turned their network into an even bigger side-show that it already was with their delusional hatred of Trump. All their anchors are hopelessly biased and they have a consistent habit of pushing fake news as long as it fits their narrative (see numerous false Trump-Russia allegations and the Covington Catholic story).

Meanwhile, Fox News is booming, routinely having single hosts like Carlson and Ingraham garner more viewers in an hour than CNN does over the entire course of prime time.

Despite all this, CNN will remain. Just like The New York Times and The Washington Post, there’s enough liberal money out there to keep propping it up. But there’s no doubt it’s on the decline and that their money problems are getting more real by the day. Employees at CNN who aren’t on air talent probably should make sure they’ve got some backup skills. I hear coding is lucrative.

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