MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough mounted a defense of his embattled friend and former producer, CNN CEO Chris Licht, on Monday morning, observing that the network was struggling to pull in viewers well before Licht assumed the reins.

Licht reportedly apologized to staff during an editorial call on Monday, addressing a long profile of himself by The Atlantic‘s Tim Alberta that resulted in an avalanche of criticism of his already scrutinized tenure.

According to Brian Stelter, an ex-CNN journalist fired by the executive last year, Licht told employees that “This news cycle and my role in it overshadowed the incredible week of reporting that we just had, and distracted from the work of” CNN’s employees.”

“As I read that article, I found myself thinking, CNN is not about me. I should not be in the news unless it’s taking arrows for you. Your work is what should be written about,” he continued.

On Morning Joe, a program Licht helped bring to life, Scarborough praised Licht for his apology:

I would guess you would agree with me: That’s exactly what you want from somebody that made a mistake. He stepped forward, they admit the mistake and say ‘I’m very sorry.’ Head down, let’s get to work.

Later, Scarborough and his co-host Mika Brzezinski took a shot at both the pre-Licht CNN and some of the reporting attributing dismal ratings to Licht’s mismanagement:

SCARBOROUGH: I must say, the suggestion that somehow CNN was like Shangri-La and this powerhouse until Chris Licht walked through the doors kind of denies everything that happened over the past decade regarding decades, everything that happened as far as  money goes-

BRZEZINSKI: It’s strange, a lot of the coverage of this story talks about CNN being, you know-

SCARBOROUGH: A ratings juggernaut? I mean listen, I love Jeff Zucker, Jeff’s a friend of ours too, Donny [Deutsch]. In fact, Jeff saved my job at NBC more than one or two times so I’m not knocking Jeff. But this idea that it was a ratings juggernaut when it just wasn’t before Chris walked through the door, that’s just, that’s not Jeff’s fault, that’s just bad reporting. It wasn’t, it was in third place.

Watch above via MSNBC.

The post Scarborough Defends Embattled Pal Chris Licht: The Idea CNN Was a ‘Powerhouse’ Before Licht is Just ‘Bad Reporting’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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